Small victory for Czech opponents to euro

The Czechs will vote in a referendum on their country's accession to the fiscal union, the government decided on Wednesday against the will of Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg's pro-American coalition TOP 09. The conservative daily Lidové noviny believes the decision to hold a referendum is a small victory for the country's euro adversaries: "In any case things have got off to a good start, even if much remains to be done to see the referendum through. TOP 09 could still conjure up a major crisis, even if that's rather unlikely. Also necessary is a deal with the [opposition] Social Democrats on how the referendum is to be carried out. Things may well look very different in five years' time in the Eurozone, making a referendum superfluous. Nevertheless yesterday's decision marked a small victory for those who want to retain the Czech koruna. And the bond of a referendum will be more permanent than the declaration of a government that may well not survive the next elections."

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