Czechs chose Europe-friendly leftist and former premier Milos Zeman as their new president on Saturday for the first time by direct popular vote, as he trounced his conservative aristocrat rival with an anti-austerity campaign.
At 68 the burly, silver-haired Zeman scored 54.8 percent in the second-round vote against 45.19 percent for Czech Foregin Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, final results showed.
Victory for the outspoken Zeman — who was prime minster from 1998 to 2002 — ends a decade under Czech President Vaclav Klaus, 71, a strident euroskeptic and politically divisive head of state.
“Now it’s time to play for the Czech national team,” Zeman said in his victory speech, as overjoyed supporters chanted “Long live Zeman” at a Prague hotel.
“As a president elected in a direct vote by citizens, I will do my best to be the voice of all citizens,” he said.
Results showed he swept the central European country of 10.5 million struggling with recession, losing to Schwarzenberg only in better-off urban areas and in isolated pockets in the north and south. Turnout was 60 percent, similar to the 2010 general election.
Zeman is a self-described “euro-federalist” whose earlier leftist government helped negotiate the Czech Republic’s 2004 accession to the EU.
“We can safely assume Milos Zeman will take a more favorable stance towards the EU,” said Tomas Lebeda, a political analyst at Charles University in Prague.
“He’s no hardline euro-optimist, but he’ll take a far more rational stance than Vaclav Klaus, he’s a pro-European president,” Lebeda said.
The Czech presidential race revolved around issues related to the EU, corruption, an economy in recession and painful austerity cuts.
Zeman, an economist, focused largely on “voters from lower-income groups, older and less educated,” political analyst Josef Mlejnek said.
His supporters pointed to his traditionally leftist approach to social spending — something for which his critics label him a populist.
“He vowed to tell the government what a miserable life people in the Czech Republic are living, and I believe Mr Milos Zeman that he will keep his promise,” voter Miroslav Drobny said at Zeman’s Prague victory rally.
Heavily reliant on car exports to western Europe, notably to Germany, the Czech Republic sank into recession a year ago amid the eurozone crisis, after posting 1.9 percent growth in 2011.
A 0.9 percent contraction is forecast for last year, ahead of a pickup to 0.2 percent growth this year. Unemployment stood at 9.4 percent last month.
Zeman has been put under the microscope for alleged corruption over his links to former communist apparatchik Miroslav Slouf, suspected of mafia ties.
Other are worried that Zeman’s sharp tongue will ruffle feathers abroad.
“He’s always been rude, that’s how he behaves, and he will always be like that. He will only discredit us. When he opens his mouth during a visit abroad, as is his habit, there will be trouble,” voter Karel Matejka said in central Prague on Saturday.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS