Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla will resign because of weak support in his Social Democratic Party, party sources said today.
Mr Spidla is the first European Union national leader to pay for a dismal showing in European Parliament elections this month.
He narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in the party earlier today, but only because his critics fell just short of the required three-fifths majority needed to remove him.
"(Spidla) said he will resign as chairman and that he will tender his resignation as prime minister on Wednesday," one delegate at the party's central executive committee meeting told Reuters. Another source present at the meeting where Mr Spidla made the statement confirmed the news.
A rebellion in the long-split party broke out after it won just 8.8 per cent of the vote in the European Parliament election, finishing in fifth place.
Mr Spidla's resignation will automatically trigger the fall of the three-party coalition which also includes the centrist Christian Democrats and the right-wing Freedom Union.
President Vaclav Klaus will be in charge of appointing another prime minister who will try to form a new cabinet.
The most likely choice is Social Democrat Vice-Chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Stanislav Gross.