{"id":12454,"date":"2018-01-23T08:20:53","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T08:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/?p=12454"},"modified":"2018-01-23T08:20:53","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T08:20:53","slug":"presidential-election-czech-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/presidential-election-czech-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential election in the Czech Republic: hopes for change and propaganda hatchet jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 12 and 13, 2018, the first round of the presidential election was held in the Czech Republic. The President is elected for five years. Since none of the nine candidates won an absolute majority, the second round of elections will be held on January 26 and 27. Milo\u0161 Zeman (born in 1944), the current President of the country, won the largest number of votes (almost 2 million, or 38.6%). His opponent in the second round will be a man without any political experience. Ji\u0159\u00ed Draho\u0161 (born in 1949) is a chemistry professor and a former head of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic who received 1.37 million votes (26.6%).<\/p>\n

According to the polls, Zeman’s typical voter is a person over 60 with primary or secondary education living in a town or village with a population of up to 5,000 people. Draho\u0161, on the contrary, is mainly supported by educated residents of large cities.<\/p>\n

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Milo\u0161 Zeman<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ji\u0159\u00ed Draho\u0161<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Zeman is known as one of the most pro-Russian presidents of Europe. He recites Kremlin propaganda talking points, consistently calling the hostilities in the east of Ukraine a “civil war” and brushing off any Russian involvement. Zeman did not change his rhetoric even in the face of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary<\/a>. Zeman’s speech in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in October 2017 was especially notable. In it, he called the annexation of Crimea by Russia “a fait accompli” and\u00a0suggested a compensation to Ukraine<\/a> to get it over and done.<\/p>\n

As for the contenders, there were a few candidates running for the post with similar campaign promises to those of Ji\u0159\u00ed Draho\u0161: Pavel Fischer, a former diplomat and an employee of the V\u00e1clav Havel administration who won 10.2% of the vote, entrepreneur and songwriter Michal Hor\u00e1\u010dek (9.2%), medical researcher Marek Hil\u0161er (8.8%), and Mirek Topol\u00e1nek, former Prime Minister and leader of the Civic Democratic Party<\/a> (4.3\u00a0%). All the contenders expressed disagreement with the pro-Russian and pro-Chinese policies of Zeman, and were also outraged by his deliberate disrespect for democratic values \u200b\u200band for the Constitution. All of them promised to improve political culture and work to mend the rift in the highly polarized society.<\/p>\n

All the contenders to the incumbent president united in a democratic bloc before the elections and declared their support to one of them who would eventually make it to the second round. After the announcement of the results of the first round they stuck to their agreement and called on their voters to vote for Draho\u0161 in the second round, with Hor\u00e1\u010dek and Hil\u0161er even offering to take an active part in his campaign.<\/p>\n

From a purely mathematical standpoint, Draho\u0161 looks like a sure winner of the second round. However, election mathematics is not so linear. As polls show, not all voters of the candidates who did not pass into the second round are prepared to respond to their appeal. In particular, about 20% of Topol\u00e1nek’s voters, 11-13\u00a0% of Hil\u0161er’s, 7-9\u00a0% of Fischer’s and Hor\u00e1\u010dek’s are going to vote for Zeman in the second round. From 3 to 5% of other voters are likely to do the same.<\/p>\n

According to sociologists, Draho\u0161 is guaranteed to receive the votes of 900,000 voters of other candidates in the second round, with Zeman getting 180,000. The overall score looks more likely in favor of Draho\u0161, but with a very slim margin of about 1-2\u00a0% (or 60-100 thousand votes). This means that the votes of the swing voters, as well as those who did not vote in the first round, will be decisive.<\/p>\n

This presidential election is thought to be the most important in the Czech Republic in the past 25 years. The situation in the society has been significantly influenced by the results of the parliamentary elections in October 2017, when for the first time after the “velvet revolution” of 1989, non-systemic and undemocratic parties won the majority.<\/p>\n

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Andrej Babi\u0161<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In particular, almost 30% of the votes went to the ANO Movement [ANO stands for Akce nespokojen\u00fdch ob\u010dan\u016f, that is, the Action of Dissatisfied Citizens – editor’s note]<\/em>. In effect, it is a private party of Andrej Babi\u0161, a billionaire of Slovak origin. He has control not only over a number of industrial enterprises, but also over some mainstream media, and this allows him to significantly influence the public opinion. Babi\u0161 built his electoral campaign on the slogans of fighting corruption and embezzlement of state property, placing the blame on the mainstream parties of the “old system”.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

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Tomio Okamura<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Almost 11% of the votes were received by the recently created pro-Kremlin movement “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (SPD)<\/a> led by Tomio Okamura, which attracted voters with populist anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic rhetoric, as well as a promise to hold referendums on any issues, including the withdrawal from the EU and NATO.<\/p>\n

Communists received 7.7% (however, this is the poorest result of the Czech Communist Party for the entire period of its existence).<\/p>\n

As a result, six democratic parties in the current parliament found themselves in the minority (85 MPs out of 200).<\/p>\n

The head or, more fittingly, the director of the private party ANO is under a criminal investigation started last year in connection with the embezzlement of a European grant of CZK 50 million (approximately $2.5 million). The subsidy was intended for SMEs, and, according to the investigators, a small enterprise \u010cap\u00ed hn\u00edzdo (Stork’s Nest) was fictitiously separated from the company Agrofert, owned by Babi\u0161, and then reintegrated a few years later. The previous parliament stripped Babi\u0161 of parliamentary immunity, but he reclaimed it after being elected in October 2017.<\/p>\n

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“Stork’s Nest”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite Babi\u0161 being a defendant in the criminal case, President Zeman not only asked him to form the government (even without negotiating the support from other parliamentary parties and securing the majority), but also promised a carte blanche to Babi\u0161 for the second attempt to form the government in the case the first cabinet fails to get traction. Formally, the Constitution does not prohibit this, but it is at odds with the long-standing constitutional tradition. (According to the Czech Constitution, the first two attempts to form a government take place by request of the President, and the third – by request of the parliamentary speaker. However, this post is also held by an ANO Movement member, Radek Vondra\u010dek).<\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0<\/em>Czech elections hijacked by disinformation<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Thus, the progressive Czech public believes that the current presidential campaign is very important, as electing a democratic and pro-European president could be the last chance to prevent the country from sliding into authoritarianism or, at least, to freeze this process, in particular to prevent the formation of an oligarchic red and brown coalition.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that the Czech intelligence agency BIS has been warning<\/a> for the past two years of a dangerous concentration of Russian intelligence assets in the country (President Zeman rejected these conclusions as unjustified). And presidential candidate Ji\u0159\u00ed Draho\u0161 in November 2017 appealed to the Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka to take appropriate measures to prevent the Kremlin from interfering in the Czech presidential elections..<\/span><\/p>\n

Zeman’s selective “non-campaigning”<\/h2>\n

Long before the elections, President Zeman stated that he would not conduct an election campaign, claiming that voters would judge him on the results of his five years in office. Zeman long refused to even attend election debates, but suddenly changed his mind after the first round of elections. However, his election campaign is actually still on: the whole country is full of banners and posters with a portrait of smiling Zeman and the words “Zeman again 2018”.<\/p>\n

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One of Zeman’s campaign banners, ordered by his “friends and supporters”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While transparent accounts have been used to finance the campaigns of all other candidates, and everyone could see the names of donors, amounts and items of expenditure, the sources of funding of Zeman’s “non-campaign” (as it was successfully branded on social networks) remain a secret. The list of persons who provided non-cash assistance free of charge for the “non-campaign” was published<\/a> on the deadline established by the Law on Elections of the President of the Republic, on January 8, 2018.<\/p>\n

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List of persons who made in-kind contributions to the election campaign of Milo\u0161 Zeman<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to this document, the largest non-monetary contribution in financial terms (more than CZK 8 million, or $400,000) was provided by the organization Friends of Milo\u0161 Zeman<\/a> (P\u0159\u00e1tel\u00e9 Milo\u0161e Zemana, z.s.). In the Commercial Register<\/a> we found the names of its founders in the charter of the organization:<\/p>\n