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Former army chief and top NATO official Petr Pavel won the Czech Republic’s presidential election on Friday on a promise to keep the country firmly in the West and bridge the country’s political divide.
Pavel, a 61-year-old retired general for the first time, won 58.3 percent of the vote with all electoral districts reporting final results, defeating billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis, a dominant but polarizing force in Czech politics for a decade.
Pavel, a social liberal who has campaigned as an independent and gained support from the centre-right government, sent a message of unity when he addressed supporters and journalists at a Prague concert venue on Saturday as a result of his victory.
“Values such as truth, dignity, respect and humility prevail,” he said.
“I believe that these values are shared by the majority of us, so we should try to make them part of our lives and also return to Prague Castle and our politics.”
Pavel also advocated continued support for Ukraine in defense against Russian invasion.
The Czech president does not have a day-to-day job but they choose the prime minister and head of the central bank, have the right to speak on foreign policy, are a powerful opinion maker, and can push the government on policy.
Pavel will take office in March, replacing the outgoing Milos Zeman, a divisive figure during his two terms in office over the past decade and who has backed Babis as his successor.
Zeman had been pushing for closer ties with Beijing and even with Moscow until Russia invaded Ukraine. Pavel’s election will mark a clear change.
Turnout in the run-off vote that ended Saturday was a record high 70.2 percent.
The election results will only be official when they are published in the legal journal on Tuesday, but the results of the polls will be clear on Saturday.
Babis, 68, an aggressive business magnate who leads the largest opposition party in parliament, attacked Pavel as a government candidate. He sought to appeal to voters struggling with rising prices by vowing to push the government to help them.
Babis and Prime Minister Petr Fiala congratulated Pavel on his victory. Slovakia’s liberal president Zuzana Caputova appeared at Pavel’s headquarters to congratulate him, a demonstration of their close political position.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Pavel on Twitter and said he was looking forward to closer cooperation.
Close relations with NATO, European Union
Pavel has supported keeping the central European country of 10.5 million strong in the European Union and the NATO military alliance, and supports the continued government for Ukraine.
He supports the use of the euro, a topic that the government has repeatedly turned off, and supports same-sex marriage and other progressive policies.
A career soldier, Pavel joined the army during the Communist era and was decorated with the French military cross for bravery while keeping peace in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He then headed the Czech general staff and chaired NATO’s military committee for three years before retiring in 2018.
“I voted for Mr. Pavel because he is a decent and reasonable person and I think the young generation has a future with him,” Abdulai Diop, 60, said after voting in Prague on Saturday.
Babis has campaigned on the fear of the war in Ukraine spread, and sought to sacrifice for peace talks broker when suggesting that Pavel, as a former soldier, could drag the Czechs into the war, Pavel’s claim was rejected.
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