Page 12 - bne_newspaper_February_02_2018

Central Europe
February 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
Zeman wins Czech presidential election
Robert Anderson in Prague
Czech President Milos Zeman has been re-elect- ed for another five years after winning the run-off on January 26-27 against chemistry professor Jiri Drahos by 51.4% to 48.6%.
Zeman won the first round of the elections on January 12-13 by 38.6% to 28.6%. Most of the eliminated candidates backed Drahos, and final polls had shown the academic winning by up to four percentage points, but Zeman remained the bookies’ favourite.
With turnout growing to 66%, Zeman seems to have succeeded in mobilising his poorer, rural and less well educated voters – he won every region
in the first round apart from Prague, the second wealthiest city in the EU's eastern member states – while attracting the support of others who trusted his experience, even if they did not like his abrasive style.
Zeman, who is 73 and was too infirm to campaign, continually emphasised his huge political experi- ence compared to that of Drahos – something that he argued was crucial in the current political vacuum.
“It is quite courageous to aspire for the highest post in the country and know nothing about poli- tics,” he said during a TV duel between the two candidates on January 25. In his victory speech on January 27, he said that voters had decided they could not afford to let the country be led “on autopilot”.
Zeman, 73, was too infirm to campaign.
Despite the president’s largely ceremonial role, the election is seen as crucial because of the country’s ongoing political crisis in forming a government, and the deepening divide between the European Union’s liberal western and populist eastern halves.
Zeman has strongly backed populist billion-
aire Andrej Babis’ right to become prime minister following his general election win in October, even though no mainstream party will currently work with him and he faces fraud charges. In return, Babis has backed Zeman as president.
Zeman had said that if he won, he would nominate Babis, though only once the billionaire has dem- onstrated that he can command a majority in the parliament.
He has urged his former party, the Social Demo- crats, to back Babis, something that could hap- pen at the party’s congress next month. With the support of the hardline Communists, Babis’ Ano party would then have a majority. Milan Chovanec, the acting Social Democrat leader and a potential candidate, was at Zeman's victory rally.
In what may have been a tactical mistake, Drahos had said he would not nominate Babis as premier while he is under investigation. This may have cost him the votes of many Babis supporters.
Zeman, once a strong supporter of the EU and even of the Czech Republic joining the Eurozone,