[Czech Republic] Presidential Election
Czech presidential race boils down to Milos Zeman or not
Journalists should be "liquidated"; vegetarians and teetotalers deserve death; Islam is conducting a "super-Holocaust" against Europe; and the world should accept Russia's annexation of Crimea. Such rhetoric was absent from a recent presidential debate at Dox, a modern art gallery in Prague, because Milos Zeman refuses to engage his rivals. That left many in the audience feeling a Christmas-carol singalong was the high point.
"The challengers are very bland; it's hard to find any political substance," notes Sean Hanley, of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. "The candidate that poses the biggest risk to Zeman is Zeman."
Jiri Drahos, an independent, academic and political novice leads the pack. Polls suggest he'll face off against Zeman two weeks after the first round of voting that takes place on January 12 and 13. The final result is difficult to call.
Indeed, the young, urban audience is not the hard-drinking, chain-smoking president's crowd. It's in the provinces that his xenophobic and reactionary rhetoric plays well.
Czech chemist seeks formula for presidency
https://www.politico.eu/article/czech-chemist-seeks-formula-for-presidency/
With Czechs voting in the first round of a presidential election on Friday and Saturday, polls show that Drahoš, a physical chemist by profession, is the most serious threat to a second term in office for Zeman.
The 68-year-old candidate looks professorial and fit — his website includes a clip of him jogging — and he discusses issues in a sober, serious and non-partisan manner. He has never joined a political party.
Zeman, by contrast, appears older than his 73 years, walks with a cane due to his diabetes, and is infamous for his many years of alcoholism and his inflammatory rhetoric, especially on such issues as immigration and Islam.