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The Czech Republic has a new president

The newly elected Czech president, Petr Pavel, a former NATO general, will promote close ties with the EU and help Ukraine resist the Russian invasion, analysts say. Pavel won the presidential elections on Saturday, defeating populist billionaire Andrej Babis. In March, the former head of NATO’s military committee, aged 61, will replace the outgoing president Milos Zeman, known for his close ties with Moscow and Beijing, and accused on several occasions of abusing its constitutional powers. According to analysts, Pavel’s experience in military diplomacy will be his asset and the way he will manage state affairs will be very different from that of his predecessor. “He will be a competent president and we understand that the war in Ukraine is one of the key problems facing Europe,” said Pavel Havlicek, a researcher at the Association for International Affairs in Prague. “We know that he has contacts at NATO (…) that are very strong and foreign policy will be his field,” the expert emphasized. Pavel built his military career in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s. He benefited from membership in the Communist Party until the fall of the regime in 1989. Having become a liberal democracy, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Meanwhile, Pavel became a supporter of joining the EU and NATO.

“There is no better alternative,” he declared on his electoral website, where he also pleaded to help Kyiv. “He is very favorable to Ukraine (…), very critical of Russia”, emphasized Jiri Pehe, political analyst at New York University in Prague. “His position will imply a strong, unconditional support for Ukraine”, already appreciated by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, insists the expert. After Pavel’s election, European leaders reacted by welcoming his pro-European dynamism.The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed Petr Pavel’s “firm commitment” to “European values”. Pavel’s victory comes in the wake of the recent Czech presidency of the EU Council, generally considered a success.The former elite paratrooper will be able to work closely with the centre-right government of Petr Fiala, which provides significant military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Petr Pavel “the government will be inspired by politics in this sense (…), there will be no fundamental differences”, estimated Pavel Saradin, analyst at Palacky University. “His policy will certainly be different from Zeman’s multilateral orientation,” he emphasized.Zeman had a 180-degree change from his friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin only after the invasion of Ukraine.”There will no longer be this ambivalence that I experienced with Milos Zeman”, believes Pehe, adding that Pavel is also favorable to the adoption of the euro by Prague. Jiri Pehe also states that Petr Pavel is more critical than his predecessor towards the Visegrad group, made up of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, a country that causes many concerns within the EU.Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains at odds with the EU over the rule of law in his country and his ties to Putin.Petr Pavel criticized the Hungarian leader on several occasions and, on the occasion of his visit to Hungary last December, he met with opposition leaders.  “He would prefer to redefine regional cooperation in a broader format, which brings together several countries, which would mean that Hungary’s influence would be neutralized,” estimated Pehe.Like most Czech politicians, Pavel would promote close ties with Israel, even if he prefers to follow the EU, according to Pehe.According to Havlicek, Petr Pavel will be able to restore the good relations with Washington, damaged for several years.”He has a great and solid experience of meetings and negotiations and he will show it. As far as foreign policy is concerned, he will be in his element”, he emphasized.

By Berta Schroder

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