Next stop for Prince Karel

PM Mirek Topolánek acted like a total jerk on Czech Radio last night but finally admitted that if Jiří Čunek returns to the cabinet, it will definitely be before the presidential elections. This means that about the same time as the CR chooses a president, it will also need to find a foreign minister, because Karel Schwarzenberg has said that if Čunek returns, he'll leave. If the candidacy of Jan Švejnar falls on its face, and if part of ODS turns against Klaus in the secret balloting, the out-of-a-job Schwarzenberg could conceivably stumble into the role of presidential savior. Sure, this scenario has plenty of obstacles. Schwarzenberg has said he's not interested; he's a returned emigrant; he is - by his own admission - a "degenerated aristocrat," and his strange Czech bothers many Czechs. But he's also one of the few people in the country with the capacity to step in after Klaus and to add luster to the office.