Czechs vote for new president
Opinion surveys show the divisive 73-year-old excommunist, who is also staunchly anti-Muslim and pro-Chinese, leading the pack of nine candidates ahead of Jiri Drahos, 68-year-old proEuropean former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Although Zeman is in pole position as the country kicks off a final day of firstround voting yesterday, the outspoken head of state is unlikely to win an outright majority, with a run-off expected on January 26-27.
As he voted in Prague on Friday, Zeman was targeted by a bare-breasted woman protester who called him "Putin's slut" in a move experts said might boost his chances judging by an outpouring of sympathy for him on social media.
Headlines like "Attack on Zeman" and "A scandalous incident" were splashed across the front pages of Czech daily newspapers yesterday as voters headed to the ballot box for a second day.
A recent poll for Czech Television showed Drahos winning a second-round vote with 48.5 percent support against 44 percent for Zeman.
Zeman's rhetoric echoes populist-minded eastern EU leaders—especially in Hungary and Poland—at odds with Brussels over mandatory refugee quotas and various rules they see as attempts to limit national sovereignty.
He is also stridently antiMuslim, having once called the 2015 migrant crisis "an organized invasion" of Europe and insisted Muslims were "impossible to integrate." The country of 10.6 million people has received only 12 migrants under the EU quota system.
Drahos could not be more different. A mildmannered liberal centrist whom critics have dubbed "wishy-washy," he has called for Prague to "play a more active role in the EU" and has backed the adoption of the euro currency.