Čunek's your plain-spoken kind of guy. You have a problem with "inadaptable inhabitants?" Leave it to Čunek. He may not have a brain the size of a planet, but he'll get it sorted. He's the ideal politician--attractive to voters or, er, should we say, white voters? You know the ones. The ones who puff themselves up by hating Romanies and, unlike their detested brethren, usually turn out to vote. Čunek, you see, says straight out what most Czechs think about Romanies. And anyone doubting such a claim need only have tuned into an April 1 TV discussion, where 92 percent of viewers agreed with Čunek's Romany problem solutions and opinions.

Might, we dare ask, his racist jibes prove to be a lovely distraction from his corruption worries? Čunek asserts he took nothing. His former secretary Marcela Urbanová engineered the case, he claims. Just perhaps, Čunek will be cleared. But it's a very uncomfortable situation for the Christian Democrats. Day after day goes by without Čunek delivering evidence of his declared innocence. And now his anti-Romany demagoguery has thrown fat on the fire. Some senior KDU-ČSL deputies, such as Pavel Severa, threaten to declare that they want to see the back of Čunek, while rumor has it that Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek could give him his marching orders April 11.

But the KDU-ČSL leadership clings on to him. What an irony. When Social Democrat (ČSSD) PM Stanislav Gross suffered the "apartment scandal" it was previous KDU-ČSL top dog Miloslav Kalousek who initiated a political crisis, saying a government member under such suspicion had to go. Gross left and was later proved innocent. Čunek is staying. Kalousek keeps his mouth shut.

What's on his mind? Perhaps that the KDU-ČSL have no replacement leader? Oh dear. The party's influence in the ruling coalition is already weak, it has fewer and fewer deputies and its membership, largely centered on South Moravian and South Bohemian loyalists, is dying out.

Is it just possible that the Christian Democrats are now countenancing the idea that a flow of extremist voters is better than assorted dribs and drabs? The extremists certainly had a ball when Čunek decided to get low down and dirty and let loose with his contagious comments. Will the historians lament how the white voters that saved the Christian Democrats turned out to be modern-day Nazis?

The KDU-ČSL is at a dangerous juncture. One can only hope that Eastertide has brought it to its senses. If not, perhaps Čunek and company can do us all an obvious favor and remove the word "Christian" from the party name.