Still no commissioner

The appointment of the Czech EU commissioner is most important in terms of the domestic post it might free up. A compendium of incomplete public and private information suggests that people around Václav Klaus saw the chance to install Interior Minister Martin Pecina as prime minister if PM Jan Fischer could be sent off to Brussels. Klaus's halfhearted public "misgivings" about having to appoint a new PM seemed to confirm this scenario. In reality, of course, replacing Fischer would clear the way for the country's political cartel to push through deals that Fischer might otherwise block. When Fischer changed his mind about going to Brussels under pressure from people in the loose anti-ČEZ coalition, he wanted to throw Klaus a bone. So he proposed CNB Gov. Zdeněk Tůma as commissioner instead. However, Klaus would probably still prefer to have his own PM than his own governor. [Czech Republic European Union Czech National Bank)