PRAGUE Battered by scandals and falling popularity, former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is quitting politics in a move seen as a relief to Czech right-wingers two months before a parliamentary vote.

The liberal politician, who presided over the European Union in early 2009, said on Thursday he would resign on April 12 as chairman of the Civic Democrats (ODS), a right-wing party currently weakened by infighting and scandals.

His party has been for years the main rival to the left-wing Social Democrats (CSSD), who are however widely expected to win the next parliamentary election on May 28-29.

The 53-year-old Topolanek took the ODS helm in 2002 and has led the party to victories in several elections, including the parliamentary election in 2006.

But his position started to weaken with a devastating loss in regional elections at the end of 2008 and, above all, with the fall of his centre-right cabinet midway through the Czech EU presidency in March 2009.

Petr Necas, Topolanek's successor as head of the party, has welcomed his former boss's decision, saying it will “calm down the situation at the ODS and allow him to focus on the election campaign.”

Political scientist Jan Kubacek said the appointment of Necas, a much less charismatic representative of the ODS's conservative wing, was the “best possible solution.”

He added that under Necas, who was the minister for labour and social affairs in Topolanek's cabinet, the ODS “can now at last present its programme and not Topolanek's affairs.”

Topolanek, who led the country as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, announced he was pulling out of the election race last week after media had published a transcript of his informal talk with the editors of a gay magazine.

The ex-prime minister, famous for his straight talking, made several inadvertent remarks about gays, Jews and the Catholic church, which he said “brainwashed” its sheep.

Topolanek later insisted that media had tweaked the filmed talk. However, many of Topolanek's rivals within the ODS, whose popularity has been falling rapidly in the past months, took the transcript as the last straw.

Many of his fellow party members had previously slammed Topolanek for his contacts with entrepreneurs and lobbyists of a dubious reputation, but also for his adventurous private life.

A picture of a naked Topolanek, taken last summer by a paparazzi in the garden of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's villa, upset his party after being published by media all over the world.

“It is clear that the ODS heads didn't quite know what to do with him,” said political scientist Jan Outly.

An opinion poll conducted by the Sanep agency on Thursday showed that 74 per cent of ODS voters saw Topolanek's withdrawal and his replacement by Necas as a way “to save the stagnant party.”

One in two voters are convinced that Necas, supported openly by ODS co-founder and current Czech President Vaclav Klaus, will be as capable as Topolanek of leading the party towards a victory in the vote.

The fate of Topolanek, who quit as a member of parliament last autumn in a move seen as undermining heavily his position in the party, was still undecided on Friday.

In a recent interview, the former engineer said he might try his luck in the private sector. But his potential return to political life cannot be ruled out after some time, several political scientists agreed.—AFP