Czech presidential vote: Zeman scores with anti-immigration talk

Presidential candidate and Czech President Milos Zeman shows his vote as his wife Ivana, right, looks on during the presidential election's first round vote in Prague, on Jan. 12, 2018. (AP)

PRAGUE: Incumbent east-looking Milos Zeman led the first round of the Czech Republic’s presidential election on Saturday by a wide margin but short of winning outright, partial results showed.
Eight candidates are seeking to oust Zeman, whose inclination toward far-right groups and warm relations with Russia and China have split public opinion.
With 30.6 percent of voting districts counted, Zeman led the race with 42.9 percent of votes, while Jiri Drahos, 68, a pro-western academic, won 24.7 percent.
Unless the winner takes more than 50 percent in the first round, the two highest-scoring candidates will go head to head in a run-off planned for Jan. 26-27.
The vote is seen as a referendum on the 73-year-old Zeman, in office since 2013, who has criticized migration from Muslim countries and Germany’s decision to accept many migrants.
Czech presidents have limited executive powers but Zeman and his predecessors have had a strong influence on public debate. They are also pivotal in forming governments — which the EU and NATO member country is now trying to do.
Zeman’s lead does not mean an easy win in the second round in which the two strongest candidates go head to head. Many voters may switch from their losing candidates to support the runner-up against Zeman.
Final first-round results were expected by Saturday evening.
The outcome may influence Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s chances of forming a cabinet. His first attempt to rule in a minority administration is likely to be rejected by parliament next week.
Zeman has backed Babis and said he would give him another chance even though the billionaire businessman has struggled to get support from other parties while he battles police allegations that he illegally obtained EU subsidies a decade ago. Babis denies wrongdoing.
A win by any of Zeman’s main rivals could mean that voices from the Czech leadership may shift closer to the EU mainstream.
Public opinion, the most euroskeptic in the EU, may also be affected by a change of tone from the top.
“I voted for professor Drahos because I want that someone who will not push us to the East and who will not be a disgrace,” said lawyer Matej Gredl, 30, after he voted in Prague.
POLICY SHIFT
A former center-left prime minister and backer of a federal Europe, Zeman has gradually shifted to positions criticizing the EU, echoing and reinforcing public sentiment.
He has won endorsements from some mainstream groups as well as the Communist Party and the main far-right anti-EU and anti-NATO SPD party.
The Czech Republic has a tiny Muslim minority and has seen few of the hundreds of thousands of people coming to Europe in the past years to seek safety from war or better life. Like Slovakia and Hungary, the Czechs have clashed with the European Commission over their refusal to accept migrants under quotas set by a vote by EU leaders.
Zeman has sought more trade and closer ties with China and has warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for the removal of EU sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea to boost business.
“If Zeman stays, it will bode well for the companies that he promotes, which have business interests in China and Russia,” said Pavel Saradin, a political scientist at Palacky University.
He has strong support mainly in the countryside of the nation of 10.6 million people, and often snipes at Prague elites and the media.
“The polarization of society has deepened in the past months,” Saradin said.
“Data also show a deepening rift between cities and the countryside.”