By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 4 hours ago, updated 10 minutes ago
Petr Pavel was hit by a wave of misinformation in the intermediate rounds. DAVID W. CERNY / Portal
The former Czech chief of staff, who went through NATO, had a comfortable lead over former billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis in the polls.
Ex-General Petr Pavel wins Czech presidential election after a 60% count. Polling stations reopened in the Czech Republic on Saturday, on the final day of the second round of presidential elections that favored retired NATO general Petr Pavel over former billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis. After a particularly virulent election campaign, analysts are predicting a high turnout for this vote.
Petr Pavel, a former paratrooper, led the latest opinion polls with 58% to 59% of voting intentions versus 41% to 42% for his rival. “Honestly, if the polls are good, I think it will be difficult for Babis to move up,” Tomas Lebeda, an analyst at Palacky University, told AFP. The winner will replace Milos Zeman, a controversial politician who had close ties with Moscow before tipping over when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In the small town of Dobrichovice, southwest of Prague, voter Irena Cihelkova told AFP on Saturday morning in cloudy and cool weather that the new president must above all represent the country well. “He should be open and friendly, which is an asset to the country, and not create problems abroad like other Czech statesmen,” she said. When voting in the northern village of Cernoucek on Friday, the former general said he wanted to be “a worthy president” of an EU and NATO member country of 10.5 million people. “I will not make empty promises, but I will describe reality as it is,” he added.
Babis, 68, whose wealth and legal worries have made him a divisive figure, dubbed the vote a “referendum on Babis” and cast his ballot in Pruhonice, south of Prague. In the first round, in which eight candidates competed, Pavel beat Babis and received 35.4% of the votes against 35%. And it has since benefited from carrying over the voices of some eliminated competitors.
Babis can count on stable electoral support in his centre-left populist movement ANO, but experts say he discouraged voters with chaotic tirades during debates. The campaign between the two rounds was acrimonious, with a wave of disinformation mostly aimed at Pavel and death threats against Babis and his family. In a hoax published on the Internet and then forwarded via SMS, it was even claimed that Petr Pavel was dead.
Although his role in the Czech Republic is essentially ceremonial, the head of state appoints the government, elects the central bank governor and constitutional judges, and assumes supreme command of the armed forces.
Former Para vs. Billionaire
Petr Pavel, 61, is a hero of the war in former Yugoslavia, in which he notably helped liberate French soldiers. He then became chief of the Czech General Staff and the NATO Military Committee.
The two rivals had been Communist Party members in the 1980s, when Czechoslovakia was under Moscow’s political leadership. Andrej Babis, owner of agro-food, chemical and media group Agrofert, is the fifth Czech fortune according to Forbes magazine. Prime Minister from 2017 to 2021, he caused controversy last week when he declared he would not send Czech troops if other NATO member states, Poland or the Baltic States, were attacked. Remarks he later revisited, but which provoked criticism in the region.
Independent political scientist Jan Kubacek said the election will not lead to a change in Czech foreign policy, regardless of who wins. “The Czech Republic will remain pro-Western,” he told AFP news agency.