Petr Pavel, former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, has won a presidential election in Czechia, Reuters reports.
Pavel beat Andrej Babiš, a billionaire and Czechia’s ex PM, in the second round, gaining 57.6% of the popular vote against 42.4% for Babiš with almost a 70% turnout.
“Values such as truth, dignity, respect, and humility won,” Pavel said after the victory. “I am convinced that these values are shared by the vast majority of us, it is worth trying to make them part of our lives and return them to our politics.”
During the election campaign, he promised to continue to provide assistance to Ukraine and strengthen Czechia’s relations with the European Union and NATO.
In the first round of elections, neither Pavel nor Babiš were able to get the required 50% of vote to win the election.
Pavel ran as an independent candidate with the support of the centre-right Czech government. Babiš is backed by current President Miloš Zeman who has been in office since 2013. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Zeman condemned, he was considered one of the Kremlin’s biggest allies among European politicians.
Pavel, 61, will become the 4th president of the Czech Republic. Prior to that, he served in military intelligence, the UN peacekeeping mission in Yugoslavia, and in the Czech Ministry of Defence. In 2015-2018, he worked as the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, becoming the first Eastern European to hold this position.
Czechia is a parliamentary republic, and the functions of its President are limited. The President’s duties include representing the country in the international arena, appointing the prime minister and members of the Central Bank, and proposing judges for the Constitutional Court.
