Czechs to vote on fate of polarizing president

Pro-Russian leader could be forced into to runoff, polls show.

Czechs are voting in a presidential election to decide whether to give a second mandate to incumbent Milos Zeman, a frequent critic of European Union policies and a supporter of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Opinion polls show Zeman winning the most votes in the first round of voting Friday and Saturday but too few to avoid a Jan. 26-27 runoff with one of his eight challengers. Among them, Jiri Drahos is the most likely candidate to advance. A 68-year-old chemistry professor and former chief of the academy of science, Drahos is pledging to improve ties with the EU and return “dignity” to the presidential post — a campaign jab against Zeman who has polarized the political landscape.

Zeman used his first fiveyear term to carve out a stronger mandate for the largely ceremonial post through what he calls a “creative interpretation” of the constitution. Critics say his pro-Russian and anti-migrant rhetoric, scorn for media and support of anti-establishment forces including the far-right party Freedom and Direct Democracy, which advocates leaving the EU, have overturned the role of the presidency, a job that has traditionally been that of a non-partisan voice of the nation.

While he has won support among many Czechs by criticizing intellectual elites, they say he’s sown doubt over whether the country of 10.6 million people should remain in the world’s largest trading bloc.

“Zeman’s camp is very mobilized, but so are his opponents, because he’s divided society so much,” said Pavel Saradin, a political scientist at Palacky University in Olomouc. “Czech society is doing extremely well economically at the moment. But, like elsewhere in Europe, people are dissatisfied, and Zeman is feeding the fire by creating an imaginary enemy; he’s attacking educated people, NGOs and immigrants.”

While the Czech Republic is the EU’s richest post-communist member by economic output per capita — it also has the bloc’s lowest unemployment and one of its fastest growth rates — Zeman has tapped into anti-migrant rhetoric resembling that of anti-establishment forces that scored gains in European elections last year. He has appointed billionaire Andrej Babis, with whom he shares dislike for the EU’s refugee policies, as prime minister, even though the tycoon’s single-party government doesn’t have a majority in parliament.

The president has pledged to grant Babis a second chance to form a cabinet if he fails to win parliamentary approval on the first try. Babis said Thursday he’d vote for Zeman in the election.

While opposition parties have decried the allegiance, opinion polls show Zeman’s office to be the most trusted constitutional institution, ahead of the government and parliament, whose popularity has suffered amid bickering among coalition parties and several cabinet collapses. Among other powers, the president has the right to name central bank board members and is the commander-in-chief of the NATO member’s military.

While the president may influence efforts to break a government stalemate as the cabinet is likely to lose the first confidence vote next week, Czech financial assets have been largely immune to political uncertainty.