text: CZECH VICE-PM SEES WIDER DEBATE AT PARTY CONGRESS. PRAGUE 1996-12-06 
   Saturday's national congress of the ruling Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS) will discuss making the party more efficient and transparent, Foreign Minister and ODS vice-chairman Josef Zieleniec, said on Friday. " Modernisation and more profesionalism of the party's structure, having financing of the party be more transparent. . . are absolutely fundamental, " Zieleniec, who is also vice-premier in the government, told Reuters. He said after June general elections in which the ruling three-party coalition lost its parliamentary majority, the ODS executive, led by Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus, had developed proposals on these subjects to present at the congress on Saturday in the Czech second city Brno. " I am convinced, that the congress will tackle these proposals, " he said. The ODS, a party in which Klaus often tries to emulate the style of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has been in control of Czech politics since winning general elections in 1992. Zieleniec in the summer led calls for the party and its leadership to listen to more diverse opinions, a thinly-veiled criticism of Klaus who has spearheaded the country's post-Communist economic reforms. The party, led by the vigorously-confident Klaus, took 32 of 81 seats after late November runoff elections to the new upper house of Czech parliament. But after the first round vote a week before, the ODS had the potential to win as many 79 seats. Klaus and his coalition lost its majority in parliament in June lower house elections after the left-wing opposition consolidated, putting the centre-left Social Democrats in a strong second-place position. --Prague Newsroom 42-2-2423-0003
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