Jan Fischer, the unassuming non-party technocrat who is holding the fort as Czech prime minister for the next few months, is getting his 15 minutes of fame on the world stage – but it’s certainly not going to his head. He was sitting in his Prague office today telling me about his preparations for next week’s European Union summit in Brussels – an event he will chair – and somehow his background as a humble statistician kept colouring the conversation.
For example, when I asked him whether most EU heads of government supported a legally binding decision to nominate José Manuel Barroso at the summit for a second term as European Commission president, he replied that it was “50-50 … as regards the sample of people I’ve had a chance to speak to”.
Since there are 27 national leaders in the EU, I did some sums and cautiously suggested that this meant he must have spoken to an even number of leaders, rather than an odd number – unless (I silently mused) the UK’s Gordon Brown or Ireland’s Brian Cowen had broken in two as a result of their recent domestic electoral disasters.
Sure enough, Fischer confirmed that he had so far spoken to six leaders around Europe. But what about that other burning question that surrounds contemporary Czech leaders?
Fischer, a former head of the Czech national statistics office, replaced Mirek Topolanek as premier – and it was only last week that Topolanek disclosed that he was one of the guests pictured in a state of extreme undress, though not distress, at the luxurious Sardinian villa of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
So has Fischer ever been to Sardinia? And if not, what, statistically speaking, are the chances that he may go in the near future? Alas, the interview was over before I could pop the question.
Across the globe: Gideon Rachman and his FT colleagues debate international affairs on