Candidates for the post of President of the Czech Republic have been determined: a NATO general, or a billionaire

In the Czech Republic, the first round of presidential elections ended, following which two main candidates reached the final – former Prime Minister Andrej Babis and retired General Petr Pavel. The second round of the fight for the post of head of state will take place in two weeks. The arrival of a new president could have a strong impact on Czech foreign policy.

According to the results of counting ballots from all polling stations, Petr Pavel leads in the first round of the presidential elections with 35.4 percent of the vote, only slightly ahead of Andrei Babiš with 35 percent. Their only competitor, Danushe Nerudova, was in third place with a miserable 13.9%.

In the Czech Republic, the president has no executive power, but has significant powers to appoint prime ministers, central bankers, and appoint constitutional court judges. The president also has a limited say in foreign affairs and is the commander-in-chief of the army.

Both Petr Pavel, former Chief of the Czech General Staff and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, and billionaire Andrej Babiš, who was prime minister from 2017-2021, are probably considered more pro-Western politicians than Milos Zeman, who is retiring after a 10-year presidency. who advocated closer ties with China and, prior to the conflict in Ukraine, with Russia. According to critics, the head of state abused not only alcohol and smoking, but also his limited powers, turning the main official office of the president, Prague Castle, into an alternative center of foreign policy, focused on developing relations with the East, and not with the West.

In an interview the other day, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, who has been a frequent critic of China and whose 2021 appointment Milos Zeman unsuccessfully tried to block, said he was looking forward to the post-presidential era. “Of course, Zeman has a different view on some areas, and he insisted quite strongly on softer positions on Russia and China,” he said, adding that the change of the head of the republic should give “a serious new impetus” to Czech foreign policy.

Both candidates who made it to the second round are in favor of closer relations with the West and NATO. However, Pavel, 61, is strongly pro-Western and supports further military aid to Ukraine, as well as the Czech Republic’s transition from the koruna to the euro. The arrival of Andrej Babiš, who built a chemical, farming and media empire now listed in trust funds, would be less of a change as he shares Zeman’s cordial relationship with Hungarian President Viktor Orban, who is at odds with EU partners on a number of issues. . Babiš, 68, has in the past opposed increased Czech military aid to Ukraine and said on Saturday he would try to organize a peace summit.

At the same time, the current centre-right government of the Czech Republic enjoys a reputation as one of the most loyal supporters of Kyiv in the West.

Former NATO general Petr Pavel calls his rival a populist and a threat: “The danger is that we will start to slide not only into populism, but we will also start to deviate from the course that we have been following for the past 30 years, which is clearly pro-democratic, pro-Western, pro-European.”

Opinion polls gave Pavel an advantage over Babiš in the second round as he was likely to attract more people who voted for the other six candidates who lost in the first round. In third place, economics professor Danushe Nerudova congratulated Pavel, saying she would meet with him to offer support. “There is still a great evil here, and his name is Andrei Babish,” she said.

Babiš, whose ANO party is the largest in parliament, called the vote a show of dissatisfaction with the government’s response to high inflation and energy prices. The billionaire vowed to put pressure on the cabinet to provide more aid to households.

“Pavel will only carry out the will of the government,” Babiš said after the first round. “This asocial government wants to raise our taxes.”

Some voters were disappointed by the fact that both first-round winners were members of the Communist Party until the end of its rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

Andrei Babish worked in foreign trade, and he is accused of working as an informer for the secret services under the communists (he denies this himself). And Pavel began his military career in socialist Czechoslovakia in the 1980s and was trained in military intelligence. This gave Babiš grounds for attacking a competitor. But things are not going well for him either: as prime minister, Babiš was convicted by the European Commission of a conflict of interest over subsidies paid to his business empire, Agrofert, which is in trust. However, a few days before the election, he was acquitted in the EU subsidy fraud case.

Be that as it may, regardless of which of the two candidates ultimately wins, the departure of President Zeman should return Czech foreign relations to a clearly pro-Western path, The New York Times states.