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28 I Central Europe bne December 2017
Populist President Zeman has polarised Czech society. In November 2014 in Prague, in a demonstration named "I Want to Talk to You, Mr. President", Czechs showed red cards to Zeman in a protest at his pro-Russia stance and vulgar language. www.wikiwand.com
Copious mud flies as starting pistol
is fired on Czech presidential race
Will Conroy in Prague
Andrej Babis – the billionaire ‘anti- politician’ set to become Czech prime minister following the
late October general election landslide achieved by his anti-establishment
Ano movement – on November 7 made
a lively intervention, stating that the candidacy of former centre-right Civic Democratic Party (ODS) PM Mirek Topo- lanek, announced at the last minute, was a “mockery”. Topolanek had been the “most corrupt head of government
in the Czech Republic's history,” he said.
Babis, himself facing a fraud investigation, said he saw Topolanek as the joint candidate of “symbol
of corruption” Miroslav Kalousek
– a former finance minister during Topolanek’s 2006-2009 administration but now merely a leading light in the liberal-conservative TOP 09 party,
the parliamentary representation of which was almost wiped out in the election – and ODS. Kalousek quickly responded with a tweet saying: "I
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understand the logic of Andrej Babis. Topolanek by preventing his ministers from 'taking from Andrej' provoked a feeling in him that others offered more."
‘Beware the Babis-Zeman power pact’
ODS, which came second in the elec- tion, though a distant second, has been warning that should Kremlin-friendly and brazen-faced President Milos Zeman be re-elected he will essentially take over foreign policy by forming a power pact with fellow populist Babis, despite the constitutional arrange- ment that the Czech president serves
a largely ceremonial purpose.
Flinging his own barbs, the outspoken Topolanek told the Pravo daily that the last straw for him when deciding wheth- er to run was a horrible post-election press conference given by Zeman and Babis which, if it had been a scene out of a Monty Python movie, he would have laughed about. It was, however, rather
a sad Czech politics reality show, he said.
Topolanek, nevertheless, told journalists at a press conference that he respects 73-year-old Zeman, a former Social Dem- ocrat (CSSD) leader (1993-2001) and prime minister (1998-2002) for his previ- ous political achievements. He added that Topolanek would like to see Zeman go down in history as the PM who led the country into Nato, not as the president who raped the constitutional order and “kowtowed to undemocratic big powers”.
ODS has endorsed Topolanek as a non-partisan candidate for president, having decided, like the other par- ties in parliament, not to nominate its own contender. Party leader Petr Fiala said that his party’s main goal is to prevent Zeman’s re-election. ODS, an Atlanticist party, views Topola- nek as someone who can take on the Zeman-Babis power pact, Fiala said.
However, Vaclav Klaus Jr., a highly popular upcoming ODS politician and son of the former president and ODS