Little Oase Amid Prolonged War: Pro Ukraine and Former NATO Commander Elected to be Czech President

Former army chief and high NATO official Petr Pavel has won the Czech Republic's presidential election with a pledge to keep the country firmly anchored in the West especially for prolonged war in Ukraine - Russia, and bridge society's political differences. He will be sworn in on March 9.

Pavel has been elected Czechia’s fourth president, beating the Slovak-born billionaire and former Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš in a runoff.

With the ballots from 97% of almost 15,000 polling stations counted by the Czech Statistics Office, Pavel had 57.8% of the vote compared with 42.2% for Babiš.

Though Czech presidents wield little day-to-day power, Pavel will have influence over foreign policy and government opinion, as well as the power to appoint prime ministers, constitutional judges and central bankers.

The official annual inflation rate in the Czech Republic for 2022 is 15.8%. In a Country were the average monthly salary is 1000 euro and Prague rents are like in Vienna, we’re by the way anyone paid 8 euro for (just) a loaf of bread. Made worse as landlords in Czech Republic are legally allowed to raise rents yearly based on inflation increase. So for 2023 monthly rents just went up 15.8%-20%.

True to his military past, he has vowed to bring "order" to the Czech Republic, a 10 million-strong EU and NATO member, hammered by record inflation and economic turmoil due to the Ukraine war.

Pavel, who had campaigned as an independent and gained the backing of the centre-right government, conveyed a message of unity and calm in society when addressing his election headquarters at a Prague concert venue on Saturday as results showed he had won.

“Values such as truth, dignity, respect and humility won,” Pavel told supporters and journalists. “I am convinced that these values are shared by the vast majority of us, it is worth us trying make them part of our lives and also return them to the Prague Castle and our politics.”

Czech presidents do not have many day-to-day duties but they pick prime ministers and central bank heads, have a say in foreign policy, are powerful opinion makers, and can push the government on policies.

Pavel will take office in March, replacing outgoing Milos Zeman, a divisive figure himself over his two terms in office over the past decade who had backed Babis as his successor.

Zeman had pushed for closer ties with Beijing and also with Moscow until Russia invaded Ukraine, and Pavel’s election will mark a sharp shift.

Babis, 68, a combative business magnate who heads the biggest opposition party in parliament, had attacked Pavel as the government’s candidate. He sought to attract voters struggling with soaring prices by vowing to push the government do more to help them.

Babis and Prime Minister Petr Fiala congratulated Pavel on his victory on Saturday.

The result of the election will only become official when published in a legal journal on Tuesday, but the outcome of the poll was already clear on Saturday.

Pavel has backed keeping the central European country of 10.5 million firmly in the European Union and NATO military alliance, and supports the government’s continued aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last year.

He is a backer of adopting the euro, a topic that successive governments have kept on the back burner, and supports gay marriage and other progressive policies.

A career soldier, Pavel joined the army in Communist times, was decorated with a French military cross for valour during peacekeeping in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and later rose to lead the Czech general staff and become chairman of NATO’s military committee for three years before retiring in 2018.

Babis had campaigned on fears of the war in Ukraine spreading, and sought to offer to broker peace talks while suggesting Pavel, as a former soldier, could drag the Czechs into a war, a claim Pavel rejected.