PRAGUE • Czech Christian Democrat leaders faced a rank-and-file rebellion yesterday over their plans to enter a leftist coalition that would need Communist backing in parliament. The Czech Republic has been locked in a political stalemate since a general election in June in which neither leftist nor rightist parties won majority in parliament, creating uncertainty over the country’s euro adoption plans.

Chances of a breakthrough rose suddenly on Thursday when leaders of a small rightist party, the Christian Democrats, said they were ready to turn coat and join a coalition with the Social Democrats, the number two force in parliament. Both parties said they were confident they could compromise on a government programme and the Communists signalled they would back them to produce a majority in parliament.

But the prospect of relying on the Communists, heirs of the totalitarian party which ruled Czechoslovakia after World War Two, proved too much for many Christian Democrats.

“There is a serious debate over this within the party,” Christian Democrat spokesman Ondrej Jakob said by telephone.

“We have not had very favourable responses to the idea of our party joining a government that would rely on Communist votes,” he added. “I hope that the party will decide not to continue talks with the Social Democrats on a minority government backed by the Communists,” he said. The rebellion, if successful, would be an embarrassment for Social Democrat leader and former prime minister Jiri Paroubek, bidding for a second term in office despite losing the June election to conservative Civic Democrats.

Paroubek grudgingly allowed the conservatives to try to form a government earlier this month after months of blocking their efforts, only to stab them in the back with a surprise announcement he was launching his own bid for power.