{"id":395777,"date":"2018-01-27T15:11:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T15:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=395777"},"modified":"2018-01-27T15:11:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T15:11:58","slug":"czech-president-zeman-wins-second-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=395777","title":{"rendered":"Czech president Zeman wins second term"},"content":{"rendered":"

Czech President Milos Zeman has won a second five-year term in office following a tight run-off vote against rival Jiri Drahos.<\/p>\n

Mr Zeman, a pro-Russia and strident opponent of immigration, took 52% of the vote, narrowly beating Mr Drahos, a pro-EU academic with no prior political experience, Czech television reports.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s ballot was the second round for the presidential candidates.<\/p>\n

In the first round, Mr Zeman had 38.6% of the vote while Mr Drahos won 26.6%.<\/p>\n

Casting his vote on Friday, Mr Zeman said Mr Drahos lacked experience.<\/p>\n

“My opponent is someone who has not yet practised politics,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Jiri<\/span>Mr Drahos has picked up endorsements from eliminated candidates<\/figure>\n

Meanwhile Mr Drahos thanked his supporters, saying their “energy will not be thwarted, whatever the outcome”, AFP news agency reported.<\/p>\n

The election has reflected divisions between low-income voters with lower education and those living in rural areas, who tend to vote for Mr Zeman, and wealthier and well-educated residents of bigger cities, who are likely to prefer Mr Drahos, correspondents say.<\/p>\n

The post of president is largely ceremonial but hugely influential. It picks, for instance, which politician can form a government.<\/p>\n

Mr Zeman has\u00a0promised to give Prime Minister Andrej Babis,\u00a0a billionaire businessman, a second chance to form a government after his minority cabinet lost a confidence vote in parliament last week.<\/p>\n

Mr Zeman’s current presidency does not end until March, so he plans to reappoint Mr Babis next month.<\/p>\n

Who’s who in Czech run-off?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Milos<\/span><\/figure>\n

Milos Zeman, 73<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Joined the Communist Party in 1968 during the “Prague Spring” but was expelled in 1970 for opposing Soviet intervention that crushed moves towards liberal reforms<\/li>\n
  • After communism fell he joined the left-leaning Social Democratic party and became leader in 1993<\/li>\n
  • In 2013 he became the third president of the Czech Republic since it split from Slovakia in 1993<\/li>\n
  • In his outspoken remarks on immigration he once said that Muslims were “impossible to integrate” into Europe<\/li>\n
  • In the EU, he has fiercely opposed sanctions against Moscow and has made improving relations with China a priority<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \"Jiri<\/span><\/figure>\n

    Jiri Drahos, 68<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Studied chemistry and technology and was president of the Czech Academy of Sciences from 2009 to 2017<\/li>\n
    • He is a supporter of EU and Nato membership but opposes the EU’s quota system for distributing migrants<\/li>\n
    • He considers himself a centrist politician who can unite the country<\/li>\n
    • He has never belonged to any political party, and claims spread on social media that he collaborated with the StB (secret police) were proved false<\/li>\n
    • After the first round, he told the BBC that he wanted to “end the climate of populism and fear in Czech society” that has marked Mr Zeman’s presidency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      –<\/p>\n

      Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Czech President Milos Zeman has won a second five-year term in office following a tight run-off vote against rival Jiri Drahos. Mr Zeman, a pro-Russia and strident opponent of immigration, took 52% of the vote, narrowly beating Mr Drahos, a pro-EU academic with no prior political experience, Czech television reports. Saturday’s ballot was the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":395779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[16554],"class_list":["post-395777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-czech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=395777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/395779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=395777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=395777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=395777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}