SLOVAKIA: Slovakia looks set for early elections after the government split over a treaty with the Vatican that would let workers refuse certain duties on religious grounds.
The Christian Democrats quit the coalition after the prime minister opposed a law allowing doctors to refuse to perform abortions or prescribe contraceptives, and let employees opt out of work on Sundays.
The clause was part of a treaty between mostly Catholic Slovakia and the Vatican, but needed the approval of government and parliament to take effect. The departure of the Christian Democrats leaves the ruling centre-right alliance with just 52 seats in the 150-seat parliament, a position that premier Mikulas Dzurinda suggested was untenable.
"We want to present on Wednesday our proposal for early elections to the leaders of the opposition parties," he said yesterday. "June seems to be a realistic possibility."
Ninety deputies must back an early vote for it to take place. The move appears to have support from the Hungarian minority party, the Christian Democrats and the left-wing opposition group Smer.
A ballot scheduled for September was expected to bring a shift away from pro-EU, economically liberal parties like Mr Dzurinda's towards Smer, which pledges to fight graft, halt privatisation, and reverse some market reforms.
Polls show Smer outstripping Mr Dzurinda's party after his two terms in office, despite his managing to lead Slovakia into the EU and Nato, make it a magnet for foreign investment and almost halve unemployment from a record 20 per cent.
Analysts expressed concern that fresh elections could stall privatisation plans and bring victory for Smer, which criticised the conditions of Slovakia's EU entry and opposes foreign investment and Mr Dzurinda's plan to adopt the euro in 2009.
The left-wing HZDS party of former prime minister Vladimir Meciar, whose hard-line anti-Western rule isolated Slovakia for much of the 1990s, has offered to support Mr Dzurinda until the polls.
Analysts say Mr Dzurinda may be willing to forge an alliance with the HZDS to keep Smer out of power, as long as Mr Meciar - who has recently softened his firebrand image - promises to personally stay out of government.
Brussels will closely watch developments in Slovakia, amid a drift in central Europe towards parties that are sceptical about the EU, the euro and market reforms.
Poland's new government has struck a deal with populists to seal a parliamentary majority, while polls show Hungary's occasionally nationalist Fidesz party leading the ruling Socialists before April elections.
In the Czech Republic, eurosceptic conservatives are well placed to beat the leftist government in a vote likely in June.