Literarily minutes after a potential crisis within the government over restitution of church property was defused, a potentially far more serious rift emerged between the two larger parties in the center-right coalition. Foreign Minister Schwarzenberg says it’s imperative Prague signs up to the EU’s financial and budgetary integration initiative. President Václav Klaus says he’ll block any such move. Schwarzenberg, leader of the center-right TOP 09, has unequivocally positioned his party as a pro-EU by backing budgetary and fiscal integration, the terms of which are being finalized principally by the finance ministries in Berlin and Paris, albeit to a lesser extent.
