A soldier, an academic and a millionaire, favorites for the presidential elections of the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic celebrates this Friday and Saturday the first round of the presidential electionfrom which the fourth head of state of the Central European country will emerge since his return to the democratic one in 1989with three candidates who will compete for the two places in the decisive round at the end of January.

The latest polls give as a favorite to ex-general Petr Pavelwith a slight advantage ahead of Andrej Babisa controversial former prime minister and agribusiness tycoon who just been acquitted in a corruption lawsuit. Third in the polls, by some distance, Danuse Nerudova, an economist and former university president, is the only woman among the candidates.

Less than a week before the elections, the three candidates had a voting intention of between 21% and 29%. At the same time, polls indicate that in case of going to the second roundboth Pavel and Nerudova, both supported by the ruling Spolu (Together) coalition, would win with a comfortable majority against Babis.

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Some 8.5 million citizens with the right to vote are called to the polls on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, to elect the new head of state who will replace the social democrat Milos Zemanwho occupied position for the past ten years.

The Czech Republic has had three presidents in its 34 years of democracy: the writer and former dissident Vaclav Havelwhich handed over the presidential post in 2003 to Vaclav Klaus, the architect of liberal market reforms when he was prime minister between 1993-1998.

Both were still elected by Parliament, until a constitutional reform that allowed the next president, Milos Zeman, be elected in 2013 at the polls by universal suffrage.

Contrary to liberal policies such as same-sex unions or the adoption of children by homosexual couples, Zeman maintained a tense relationship with the press for years, while being an ally of Prime Minister Babis (2017-2021).

In 2015, following the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014was the only European head of state who went to Moscow’s Red Square to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

His would-be successors are clearly critical of both Russia and China, and also advocate more liberal social policies, including marriage equality.

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Pavel, 61, is an experienced former general of the Czech army, he was chief of the General Staff between 2012 and 2015and between 2015 and 2018 he held the position of head of the NATO military committee, being the first soldier from a former communist country to reach that position.

three candidates

Babies, 68 years old, is one of the richest men in the country thanks to his Agrofert agro-industrial consortium. He was finance minister and then prime minister, and he was acquitted this week in a fraud trial involving European funds for one of his companies, which could improve his chances at the polls.

nerudova, 44 years oldis an economist and former rector of the Mendel Agricultural University in Brno, who aspires to become the first woman to reach the presidential officewith a message based on the fight against corruption and poverty, and climate protection.

Jiri Pehedirector of the University of New York in Prague (UNYP), highlights the paradox that the two candidates with the highest voting intentions both have a communist past. As explained by the analyst to the news agency efethat advantage seems to be due to the management experience they havewhether at the head of the Army or the Government, something that the other candidates do not offer.