What Foreign Policy Course has Chosen the Newly Elected President of Czech Republic?

• 02.01.2018, 23:59
•  Europe,  World

DW

The second round of presidential elections took place in the Czech Republic the other day, in which took part the incumbent President Milos Zeman and the ex-chairman of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Jiří Dragos, who is one of the most famous chemists in Europe.

According to the final results of the elections, 66.6% of citizens who have the right to vote, participated in the voting. Zeman was re-elected as president of the Czech Republic, receiving 51.67% of the vote (2.8 million).

In the pre-election period, sociologists assured that the electorate of Zeman is mainly residents of villages and towns, people with a low level of education, conservatives. And Dragos, on the contrary, was supported by urban intelligentsia, students, young scientists. Five of the seven candidates who lost in the first round of the vote, called to vote in favor of Dragos.

In fact, the forecasts of sociologists were justified. Zeman won in 11 out of 13 regions, losing only in Prague and the Central- Czech region. After summarizing, Dragos congratulated the newly elected president.

The announcement of the results was followed by congratulations and opinions. Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the first to congratulate Zeman. According to Putin, Zeman's re-election showed that he "enjoys great authority in the country." Putin described him as an experienced and responsible politician who cares about the country's well-being, the RIA agency reported.

Putin also proposed deepening cooperation at the bilateral and multilateral levels. There are already some certain forecasts about the foreign policy of the country, in particular, in the Czech Republic, several high-ranking officials expressed the opinion that during the second period of Zeman's presidency, relations with Russia will receive a final settlement.

According to the opinion formed in the country and abroad, Zeman tries to settle relations with Russia and China, stands for the elimination of sanctions against the Russian Federation. In contrast, Dragos supported the NATO-EU direction and the preservation of anti-Russian sanctions.

As one might have predicted, Europe hastened to accuse the newly elected President of the Czech Republic of populism and the negative attitude towards Muslim refugees. According to European politicians, Zeman is responsible for the deterioration of relations with the West.

Analytical and research centers in Europe even accused Russia of interfering in the presidential election in the form of anti-propaganda against Dragos. British and German authoritative newspapers consider Zeman as "pro-Russian" and "anti-Western" politician.

The inauguration ceremony of the newly elected president will be held on March 8.

Recall that during the state visit to Armenia in June 2016, Zeman strongly condemned the Armenian Genocide and noted that "deniers are real cowards." He also spoke about the need to intensify economic cooperation between Armenia and the Czech Republic, especially highlighting the energy and IT sectors.

Earlier, Ambassador of Armenia to the Czech Republic, Tigran Seyranyan, stated that the diplomatic relations between Armenia and the Czech Republic are at a quite high level. The heads of the two states meet periodically, inter-parliamentary, cultural ties are also active. Economic relations are constantly progressing. According to the Ambassador, a lot of work is being done to attract investments to Armenia.