Retired general and close to the West wins the Presidency of the Czech Republic

First modification: 01/29/2023 – 00:41

Despite the fact that the president of the Czech Republic has a largely ceremonial role, the battle for the position at the polls was close. For the head of state there were two candidates in the second round: the billionaire and former prime minister, Andrej Babis, and the retired general Petr Pavel.

The latter won the second round with 58.3% of the votes. The results were released on Saturday night. Knowing the count, he addressed his supporters present at the concentration point of his campaign.

“The values ​​of truth, respect and humility have won,” he said, “which are shared values, and I want them to return to Prague Castle (seat of the Presidency) and to our politicians.” At another point, he stated that they had “left behind one of the worst campaigns, one of the most unpleasant” in the history of the country, “in which populism joined extremism”, which he considered very dangerous.

And it is that the process prior to the election was plagued by violent clashes, death threats, cyberattacks on the websites of the candidates and the sending of envelopes with bullets inside and offensive and intimidating messages.

Pavel carried out his campaign as an independent. He is a social liberal who emerged victorious on the basis of a record vote turnout of 70.2%. His contender, Andrej Babis, and the Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, who was betting on Babis, sent him his congratulations. The first urged him to be a “president of all.”

The Presidency has little executive power in its hands, although it does have some powers. After the general election, he chooses the prime minister. It also selects the judges of the Supreme Court with the consent of the Upper House of Legislative. It also appoints the president of the Central Bank.

a pro-western line

Petr Just, an analyst at the Prague Metropolitan University, believes that foreign policy is the “strong point” of the newly elected head of state. According to the professor, Pavel’s time in NATO -the body of which he came to chair the military committee-, his experience and his perspective as a member of his board of directors will “promote” the nation’s Western interests.

Pavel has publicly endorsed the importance of his country belonging to the European Union. He also set his own position in favor of humanitarian and military support for Ukraine and is in favor of improving relations with the North Atlantic Military Alliance, of which the Czech Republic is also a member. In addition, he is in favor of the adoption of the Euro and equal marriage.

The president-elect’s line is very different from that of Andrej Babis, his opponent at the polls. Despite later recanting, Babis once stated that if the Baltic countries and Poland were attacked, he would not send troops to defend them.

Who is Petr Pavel?

Petr Pavel is a career military man. Following in his father’s footsteps, he joined the Army in the nation’s communist era. He completed a military intelligence course in 1989, when socialism had already fallen and he was a member of the Communist Party.

He participated in peacekeeping tasks in the extinct Yugoslavia. For his actions, he was awarded a French Military Cross, when he evacuated a group of 50 French soldiers trapped in the middle of the confrontations and came to lead the General Staff of the military forces of his country.

He was also head of the NATO military committee. In that role, he represented the Alliance at a meeting with Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.

Reactions to Pavel’s win

In person, the president of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova, celebrated Pavel’s triumph on the stage set up for her supporters in Prague, the capital. “His victory is a triumph of hope, of hope that decency and honesty are not a weakness but a power that could lead to victory even in politics,” she said.

For his part, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, congratulated the president-elect on his Twitter account. “I sincerely congratulate General Pavel on his resounding victory,” he said. “I would be happy to have close personal cooperation for the benefit of the peoples of Ukraine and the Czech Republic in the interest of a united Europe,” he added.

Pavel will assume the position on March 8. He will replace Milos Zeman, who was in charge of the State for ten years.

With AP, EFE and Reuters