Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: A retired NATO general leads a billionaire ex-premier going into the Czech Republic presidential run-off that starts from Friday, following an election campaign that saw the Russia-Ukraine conflict take centerstage.
Well-off entrepreneur and former prime minister Andrej Babis is trying to persuade voters nervous about a spillover from the conflict by implying his opponent as a military man, could take the Czech Republic into the war.
Babis as a populist lawmaker also said he would not send troops to Poland or the Baltics to assist them under NATO’s collective defense.
Andrej Babis looks set to lose out to Petr Pavel, according to the latest opinion polls, after the former NATO general won over supporters of several first-round candidates.
Presidential Run-Off
“Turnout will be the decider. The question is if Babis will manage to demobilize a part of Pavel’s voters,” said Otto Eibl, a political analyst at Masaryk University.
The winner of the contest, which ends Saturday, will replace Milos Zeman, an outspoken and divisive politician who nursed close relations with Russia before making a U-turn when Moscow invaded Ukraine.
The new constitutional head of state will face record inflation in the central European country and NATO member of about 10.5 million people, as well as bulging public finance deficits in the context of the war in Ukraine.
As the role is largely ceremonial, the president names the government, picks the central bank governor and constitutional judges, and also serves as top commander of the armed forces.
