Miloš Zeman has been chosen by popular vote to become the next president of the Czech Republic. All votes have been counted.
Zeman, a former prime minister, won the first round of voting two weeks ago. His opponent, who is Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister, and TOP 09 party head Karel Schwarzenberg, received roughly 42 000 fewer votes during that round.
The new head of state will take office on 8 March.
Zeman, who once chaired the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), has successfully achieved a return to high politics in the Czech Republic after spending more than 10 years on the sidelines for the most part.
Zeman may also consider winning the state’s highest constitutional office to be satisfaction for his unsuccessful candidacy for the presidency on behalf of the Social Democrats in 2003. That year his rival of many years turned political partner, Václav Klaus, was surprisingly chosen for the presidency. Now Zeman will take over the office from Klaus 10 years on.
The second-place victory of 75-year-old Schwarzenberg was the surprise of the first round of voting earlier this month. Schwarzenberg edged out the candidate favored in the polls, former Prime Minister Jan Fischer.
Schwarzenberg’s campaign had most of the arts community on its side and he became the favorite candidate of young people organizing online.
However, Zeman was markedly on the offense during the contest with Schwarzenberg and weakened his opponent by running a negative campaign against which Schwarzenberg did not always successfully defend himself.
During the final round of voting, Zeman made use of his disruptive political style, which does not avoid the use of manipulation and personal attacks. The 68-year-old won the country’s first-ever direct presidential election as a citizen candidate without the backing of any of the strong parties seated in parliament.
Zeman scored points with the voters by criticizing the current political nexus, from which he had divorced himself in recent years during his "political retirement" in the Vysočina region. Despite the fact that his Strana práv občanů ZEMANOVCI (Citizen’s Rights Party for Zeman) never succeeded during parliamentary elections, he could not be stopped during the presidential contest.
Prior to the vote taking place, Zeman called himself a left-wing candidate and sharply distanced himself from the current government of Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas. He also made it clear that he wants to be an activist president who will advocate his own plans and be involved in cabinet and parliamentary negotiations.
The question now is to what degree he will be able to fulfill this rhetoric within the framework of constitutional restrictions on presidential power. Nevertheless, the new president will not be a simple partner even for the Social Democrats, whose leaders did not back his candidacy because they consider him to have harmed the party.
Along with Václav Havel and Václav Klaus, Zeman belongs among the three most significant figures in Czech politics since 1989. During the 1990s his career was marked not only by successes, but also by several controversial privatizations and affairs which discredited other political actors.
Zeman’s opponents also blame him for his opportunistic alliance with Klaus, when he concluded the so-called opposition agreement with him in 1998 and facilitated a ČSSD minority government.
There is no doubt that Zeman’s victory is a relief to the outgoing president, who took a strong stance against Schwarzenberg during the campaign.
Zeman repeatedly stated that he respects Klaus despite their differences of opinion and wants to retain Klaus’s chancellor Jiří Weigl at the Office of the President.
However, unlike Klaus, Zeman presents himself as a Euro-federalist.
According to unofficial statements, key EU countries such as France and Germany view a Zeman presidency hopefully. They expect him to take a more proactive approach toward resolving European problems.
Selected biographical data for Miloš Zeman (age 68), who was elected the third president of the Czech Republic today:
28 September 1944 – born in Kolín.
1968 – joins the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, from which he was expelled in 1970.
1969 – graduates from the University of Economics in Prague (Vysoká škola ekonomická – VŠE).
1969-70 – pedagogue at VŠE in Prague.
1971 – joins the physical education enterprise Sportpropag, where he developed the department of complex modeling.
1971 – marries for the first time; his wife Blanka Zemanová gives birth to their son David in 1972; they divorced in 1978.
1984 – after being forced to leave his previous workplace he starts working at the Agrodat enterprise, where he is involved in agricultural systems modeling.
1986 – becomes a member of the World Future Society.
1989 – in August, publishes an article in Technical Magazine (Technický magazín) in which he criticizes the regime, after which he is fired.
1990-93 – scientific worker for the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences’ Forecasting Institute (Prognostický ústav ČSAV).
1990-92 – MP in the Chamber of Nations of the Federal Assembly (Sněmovna národů Federálního shromáždění); in January 1990 he was co-opted for Civic Forum (Občanské fórum). He was a member of the Civic Movement’s (Občanské hnutí) club and later became a member of the Social Democratic Orientation (Sociálně demokratické orientace) club.
1992 – joins the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD).
1992 – MP in the Chamber of Nations of the Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, vice-chair of the ČSSD club there.
1992-93 – chair of the ČSSD municipal organization in Prague.
28 February 1993 – elected chair of the ČSSD.
2 July 1993 – marries a second time; his wife Ivana gives birth to a daughter, Kateřina, in 1994.
1996-2002 – member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.
1996-98 – chair of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.
15 March 1997 – re-elected chair of the ČSSD.
17 July 1998 – appointed Prime Minister; thanks to the so-called opposition agreement with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), he put together a minority government comprised only of members nominated by the ČSSD.
7 April 2001 – leaves the ČSSD leadership.
15 July 2002 – last day in office as Prime Minister (the cabinet resigned on 12 July 2002).
2002 – retires and moves from Prague to his cottage in the village of Nové Veselí in the Vysočina region.
24 January 2003 – unsuccessfully runs for the presidency; does not make past the first round of voting, which is won by Václav Klaus and Jaroslava Moserová.
21 March 2007 – announces he is leaving the ČSSD.
2009 – chair of the preparatory committee for the Citizen’s Rights Party, later called the Citizen’s Rights Party for Zeman – Strana práv občanů ZEMANOVCI (SPOZ).
6 March 2010 – elected chair of the SPOZ.
29 October 2010 – resigns as party chair after the failure of the SPOZ in the parliamentary elections.
13 November 2010 – becomes honorary chair of the SPOZ.
12 January 2013 – wins the first round of the presidential elections; enters the second round against Karel Schwarzenberg.
26 January 2013 – elected President of the Czech Republic.
