Accompanied by a backing track straight out of a bank heist film, a video clip showing the Czech Republic's president discreetly pocketing a ceremonial pen encrusted with semi-precious stones while his Chilean counterpart praises him during a Latin American visit has become an unlikely internet sensation.
Vaclav Klaus, a conservative who has attracted international news coverage more often in recent years as a result of his combative Eurosceptic views, is shown in the clip opening a box containing the pen at the start of a press conference alongside Sebastián Piñera.
As Piñera addresses journalists and gives Klaus an enthusiastic welcome, the Czech president takes the pen out, examines it carefully, moves his hands under the table, shuffles with his jacket, then buttons it up with both hands and finally lets his empty hands emerge above the table again to close the case.
Czech television initially broadcast the video on Sunday, the same day as the appearance, before a copy later showed up on YouTube with the headline "President of Czech Republic steals pen", complete with the addition of a crime scene soundtrack and red circles and arrows highlighting various points in Klaus's manoeuvre. Versions of the clip have been viewed over a million times.
A spokesman for Klaus said that it was "a common pen with a logo of the state or office, which presidents and members of their delegation receive during state visits".
The pens are encrusted with Chilean lapis lazuli stones, which are prized for their intense blue colour, but a spokeswoman for Piñera said the Chilean president's guests were free to take them.
"All I have to say is, it is not a pen but just a stylus," Klaus himself said on Tuesday, adding that he takes things all the time.
He said he had a pen from a Nato summit in October and a notepad from the Latvian parliament. "It is what people do regularly. They keep notepads and pens from such events," he said.
But back in the Czech Republic, the clip has inspired a Facebook campaign in which the public is being asked to contribute to a special collection for him.
Participants are asked to send pens to Klaus's office on 2 May "as the president obviously has nothing to write with", according to the Facebook group.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/czech-president-steals-pen (video inside)
I never did trust those Czechies.
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