Reuters
—
Former military commander and senior NATO official Petr Pavel won Czech Republic presidential election on Saturday with a pledge to keep the country firmly rooted in the West and narrow society’s political differences.
Pavel, a 61-year-old retired general running for office for the first time, won 58.3% of the vote with all voting districts reporting final results, beating billionaire, former prime minister Andrej Babis, a dominant but polarizing force in Czech politics. decade.
Pavel, a social libertarian who campaigned as an independent and has the backing of a center-right government, conveyed a message of solidarity when speaking to protesters. supporters and journalists at a concert venue in Prague on Saturday when the results showed he had won.
“Values like truth, dignity, respect and humility won out,” he said.
“I believe that these values are shared by the vast majority of us, it is worth trying to make them a part of our lives, and at the same time giving them back to Prague Castle and our politics. .”
Pavel also fully supports continuing to assist Ukraine in defending it against Russian aggression.
The president of the Czech Republic does not have many day-to-day duties, but they choose the prime minister and the head of the central bank, who has a voice in foreign policy, who offers a strong opinion and can push the government to do so. policies.
Pavel will take office in March, replacing outgoing Milos Zeman, a divisive figure during two terms in power over the past decade who has backed Babis as his successor.
Zeman pushed for closer ties with Beijing and also with Moscow until Russia invaded Ukraine, and Pavel’s election would mark a major change.
Voter turnout for the second round ended Saturday at a record high of 70.2%.
The results of the election will only become official when published in a legal journal on Tuesday, but the results of the poll were clear on Saturday.
Babis, 68, an aggressive business magnate who heads the largest opposition party in parliament, attacked Pavel as a candidate for government. He sought to appeal to voters struggling with soaring prices by promising to push the government to do more to help them.
Babis and Prime Minister Petr Fiala congratulated Pavel on his victory. Slovakia’s liberal president Zuzana Caputova appeared at Pavel’s headquarters to congratulate him, a testament to their close political views.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Pavel on his election on Twitter and said he looked forward to working closely.
Pavel has supported keeping the Central European nation of 10.5 million people in the European Union and NATO military alliance, and supported the government’s continued aid to Ukraine.
He supports the adoption of the euro, a topic that successive governments have consistently shelved, and supports same-sex marriage and other progressive policies.
A professional soldier, Pavel joined the army in Communist times, emblazoned with a French military cross for his bravery during peacekeeping in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and then rose to head the Czech general staff and became chairman of NATO’s military committee for the previous three years. Retired in 2018.
“I voted for Mr. Pavel because he is a kind and reasonable person and I think the younger generation has a future with him,” said 60-year-old Abdulai Diop, after voting in Prague yesterday. Saturday.
Babis campaigned for fear of the war in Ukraine spreading, and sought to offer to mediate peace talks while suggesting Pavel, as a military veteran, might appeal to the Czechs. into a war, a claim that Pavel refutes.
