It offers the last chance for a big car maker to gain a Central European brand on the cheap, now that Volkswagen owns Skoda of the Czech Republic and Renault has Dacia of Romania.

ECONOMIST: Serbia's Zastava

His route ran close to those neighbours' borders, with brief hops across, for instance to meet the Polish president and prime minister, and to visit a Skoda car factory, in the Czech republic but owned by Volkswagen.

ECONOMIST: The chancellor goes wooing east German voters

Most tellingly, where Czech companies have received a hefty capital injection, as has Skoda Auto (now a subsidiary of Volkswagen), they have done well.

ECONOMIST: The Czech Republic