Down with the Republic! Long live the King!

President Vaclav Havel might be stepping down next month, and parliament is still divided as to just who should succeed him. But does the Czech Republic need a president in the first place? No, says the country's tiny monarchist lobby. It's time to do away with the republic, they say, and install a king at Prague Castle. And as Rob Cameron reports, they're taking to the streets to make their voice heard.

Down with the Republic! Long live the King!

Monarchists marching to the Prague Castle, photo: CTK

A French band called "Sergent Pepere" plays Caribbean rhythms in the centre of Prague. Rather an odd choice of music for a protest march by Czech monarchists... But then again the whole thing was rather odd. As around 100 monarchists followed the marching band from Wenceslas Square all the way to Prague Castle, it was hard to tell whether the marchers were serious royalists or practical jokers. Especially the ones dressed in historical outfits and carrying medieval weapons.

Soldier 1: "We have a secret organisation but we are here just like a guard"

Tell me a bit about your uniforms and what you are carrying.

Soldier 2: "It's like a replica of an old weapon. In Czech it's called a "partizana", which is…well, you see the shape."

It looks like a kind of lance. It's about three metres long, and it's got a very sharp saw on it. It looks very nasty. Are you ready to use this to bring back a king?

Photo: CTK

Soldier 1: "Oh we will see. Maybe it could be very good for defenestration."

But among the jokers there were several serious monarchist groups ready to bring back the Hapsburgs, or any other ruling dynasty for that matter. And believe it or not, some of those groups - such as the Czech Crown association - have even enjoyed success at the polls:

"So far we've only stood in local elections, unfortunately. But at the last elections, we got 8,000 votes in one district in Ostrava alone - which was more than the Greens."

But surely the very idea of restoring a monarchy to Bohemia and Moravia is rather incongruous? After all, the country has enjoyed just 13 years of parliamentary democracy since emerging from forty years of Communist dictatorship. Why throw away that hard-fought democracy and install an absolute ruler instead? Petr Placak is one of the country's leading monarchists.

"The Czech Lands were a kingdom until 1918, and I think it is good for society and political culture and so on."

So there you have it. The choice of presidential candidates is so dismal, they say, that it's better to have a good king than a bad president. The idea sounds silly now, but in a weeks' time, after parliament has tried - and quite possibly failed - to elect a successor to President Havel, dusting off the Czech crown jewels might not seem like such a bad idea after all.