Czech Leader Adamec Resigns : East Bloc: Prime minister follows through on threat to quit rather than bow to Civic Forum pressure.

Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec resigned today after failing to placate an increasingly bold democracy movement that drove the previous hard-line leadership out of office two weeks earlier.

The resignation came less than 24 hours after Adamec said he would quit rather than be subjected to a barrage of “hasty deadlines, strikes and demonstrations” by opposition groups.

The opposition led by the Civic Forum coalition rejected Adamec’s latest Cabinet as an inadequate attempt at power sharing with non-Communists.

Czechoslovak President Gustav Husak accepted the resignation and named as Adamec’s replacement Marian Calfa, the first deputy prime minister in the new government unveiled Sunday, state radio said. Calfa was asked to immediately begin talks on forming a new government, the official news agency CTK said.

Before being promoted to deputy prime minister Sunday, Calfa was minister without portfolio in charge of legal affairs, and was in charge of the plans for a new constitution and other legal reforms. He has lukewarm support among the Civic Forum.

Adamec’s resignation, which followed by one day the resignation of East German leader Egon Krenz, was announced at a meeting of the National Front, an umbrella group representing political parties and social groups traditionally allied with the Communists.

Adamec had presided over several major political reforms in the weeks since the resignation of hard-line leader Milos Jakes, and his resignation could cast a pall over reform efforts.

The main opposition group Civic Forum had said Adamec was the only credible leader in the current government with whom they were willing to work.

Adamec announced his decision after failing to reach an agreement with pro-democracy groups on the makeup of a new government he was expected to unveil Friday, Czechoslovak news reports said. Civic Forum had demanded Adamec appoint at least seven non-Communists to Cabinet posts.

The new government was to replace a Cabinet named Sunday that was immediately denounced by democracy activists because 16 of its 21 members were Communists.

Wednesday, Adamec threatened to quit unless the opposition stopped using strike threats and other high-pressure tactics in an attempt to rush the government into implementing reforms.

“I am for maximum flexibility but I cannot agree to negotiations under time pressure, under the permanent pressure of hasty deadlines, strikes and negotiations,” he said in a televised address.

Civic Forum rejected Adamec’s claims, saying in a statement today that opposition groups have been “very much restrained,” having made no concrete demands until this week.

“We only recommend that the composition of the new government should reflect the fact that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia has lost not only its constitutionally anchored role in society, but above all the confidence of the public,” the statement said.