Czech election: Kremlin ally wins another term

Bloomberg

Czech President Milos Zeman, an ardent supporter of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, won a second term in an election victory after warning voters that sheltering Muslim immigrants could lead to terrorist attacks.
Zeman, 73, who was also an early fan of US President Donald Trump, took 51.4 percent of votes in a two-day ballot, according results published by the Statistics Office. His challenger for the largely ceremonial post, 68-year-old chemistry professor Jiri Drahos, pledged to anchor the nation of 10.6 million more firmly in the European Union and NATO. He conceded after getting 48.6 percent.
The victory represents a win for anti-establishment political forces who are fighting against the EU’s liberal, multi-cultural values, bolstering a group that includes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Poland’s ruling Law & Justice Party. It also extends a domestic alliance with billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis, with whom Zeman shares opposition to further European integration and acceptance of refugees from Africa and the Middle East in a country that has an almost non-existent Muslim minority.
“Zeman very clearly established his anti-immigration position and that decided the election,” said Jakub Charvat, political scientist at the Metropolitan University in Prague. “He appealed to voters with lower incomes and lower education levels who felt they finally had someone in the highest echelons of politics to defend them.”
The Czech Republic boasts one of the EU’s fastest-growing economies, its lowest unemployment and the highest living standards among the bloc’s eastern members. But the election showed a division between those reaping the benefits of the post-communist transition toward an economy integrated with richer western neighbors and poorer people who feel the country’s success has passed them by.
Zeman’s critics say his efforts to strengthen ties with Russia and China have undermined Czech relations with western allies. The veteran politician — whose three-decade career includes stints as prime minister and speaker of parliament — rejects the idea, saying he’s trying to help Czech exporters. He derides his opponents as part of a “Prague coffee-house society” detached from the lives of ordinary people.
Zeman’s win changes the timetable for Babis’s efforts to build another cabinet after his minority administration was forced to resign when lawmakers rejected it in a confidence motion this month. Zeman, who calls himself the “president of the bottom 10 million” Czechs, said after the election that he will give Babis more time to negotiate support before naming him premier for the second time. Babis backed the president in the election.
The complicated political situation hasn’t affected Czech assets as investors focus mainly on prospects for more interest-rate hikes after two increases last year. The koruna has strengthened 1 percent versus the euro so far in 2018, extending gains from last year when it was the best performer among the world’s
major currencies.
Zeman calls himself a euro-federalist, but he’s also suggested that the Czech Republic should hold a Brexit-style referendum to leave the EU.
He said he’d vote to stay in although people should have a choice.
Surrounded by allies during his acceptance speech, including Tomio Okamura, leader of an extreme anti-Muslim party, Freedom and Direct Democracy, that wants take the Czech Republic out of the EU, the president called for allowing the public more decisions via popular votes.
“I promise I will keep working the way I have so far,” he told supporters in Prague. “I want to fight for something I call active citizenship.”