Czech president Milos Zeman, a deeply polarising figure, has won a second five-year term as head of state after securing 51.4 per cent of the vote in the second round of a presidential election that ended on Saturday. His victory represents a win for anti-establishment political forces.
Mr Zeman’s pro-EU liberal challenger for the post, Jiri Drahos, a former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences who has never held political office, took 48.6 per cent of the vote.
The Czech Republic is the richest country among the EU’s post-communist members. Its economy is continuing to grow strongly and the unemployment rate is the lowest in the European Union. Mr Zeman’s frequent attacks on Muslim immigrants and the Prague elite seen as detached from the lives of ordinary people have helped him win support, particularly from older, poorer and less-educated people in villages and provincial towns, who feel the country’s economic success has passed them by.
Mr Zeman – who displays pro-Russia tendencies and whose impolitic remarks have earned him comparisons to US president Donald Trump – won the first round of voting two weeks ago, taking 38.6 per cent of the vote to Mr Drahos’s 26.6 per cent. Most of the defeated candidates threw their weight behind Mr Drahos.
Although the Czech presidency is a largely ceremonial post, the president plays a key role in the formation of new governments. The post also serves as an influential voice in public debate.
Andrej Babis’s populist ANO party emerged from October’s general election as the largest party, but fell short of a majority. Mr Babis was appointed prime minister last year. He failed to receive a vote of confidence from the lower house of parliament earlier this month.
Mr Zeman has already said that he will give Mr Babis a second chance to form a cabinet, even though most political parties have refused to support him, because he faces fraud allegations, involving an EU project subsidy aimed for small businesses, received by the “Stork’s Nest”, a congress centre outside Prague. The project was subsequently folded into Mr Babis’s business conglomerate, one of the Czech Republic’s biggest private employers. The billionaire tycoon has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claims that the charges are politically motivated.
Parliament first voted to remove Mr Babis’s immunity from prosecution in September, but after he won re-election his immunity was automatically reinstated.
Last week, lawmakers stripped Mr Babis of his immunity to let prosecutors renew fraud charges.
Photo: NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
