New Leftist Czech Government Wins Confidence Vote

The Czech Republic's new center-left coalition government has won its first confidence vote in parliament, receiving support for its policies aimed at spurring economic growth in the austerity-weary EU nation.

A total of 110 of the 181 lawmakers present in the 200-seat parliament voted in favor of the cabinet led by left-winger Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka late on Tuesday.

Sobotka's Social Democrats head the coalition with the populist ANO party led by billionaire Andrej Babis, and the smaller centrist Christian Democrats.

Together, they hold a majority 111 seats in parliament.

The coalition emerged from an October snap election capping months of political turmoil sparked by a bribery and spy scandal that toppled the centre-right administration of Petr Necas last June.

The export-oriented country of 10.5 million people, which is heavily dependent on car production and exports to the eurozone, posted a contraction in both 2012 and 2013.

It shook off a record 18-month long recession in the second quarter of last year and is now struggling to keep that recovery on track.

Sobotka, a former finance minister, has set aside Necas's unpopular austerity drive and put job creation at the top of his agenda after unemployment soared up to 8.6 percent in January, an all-time high.

"Our objective is to facilitate economic growth and prosperity, but also to keep public finances under control," Sobotka said Tuesday ahead of the confidence vote.

He has vowed to keep the deficit to within the EU limit of 3.0 percent of output, but rightwing opposition leaders are sceptical and have accused Sobotka of being "irresponsible" on public spending.

The leftist premier is also taking a warmer approach to the European single currency than Necas's largely skeptical team, although the euro is unlikely to be adopted during his four-year term.

The Czech economy shrank by 1.1 percent in 2013, slightly worse than the 1.0 percent contraction in the previous year.

But a healthy 1.6-percent quarterly expansion in the fourth quarter of 2013 has fueled optimism that a central bank forecast of 2.2-percent growth this year is realistic.