Czech election: Zeman beats Drahos to win second term

Czech president milos zeman has won a 2d time period in workplace following a tight run-off vote in opposition to rival jiri drahos.

Mr zeman, who fiercely opposes immigration and gadgets to ecu sanctions in opposition to russia, took fifty two% of the vote to beat mr drahos, a pro-ecu academic and not using a previous political revel in.

Voter turnout on saturday changed into over 66%.

The position of the czech president is influential; mr zeman can call the high minister and signal payments exceeded by parliament into regulation.

He has promised to offer top minister andrej babis, a billionaire businessman, a 2nd threat to shape a government after his minority cabinet misplaced a self assurance vote in parliament closing week.

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Mr zeman's present day presidency does no longer end till march, so he plans to reappoint mr babis next month.

His position also lets in him to rent imperative bank board individuals and judges.

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 the presidential election has contemplated divisions between low-profits voters with lower training and those dwelling in rural areas, who have a tendency to vote for mr zeman, and wealthier and nicely-knowledgeable residents of larger towns, who are probable to opt for mr drahos, correspondents say.

Mr drahos has never belonged to any political party however he informed the bbc that he desired to "stop the weather of populism and fear in czech society" that has marked mr zeman's presidency.

In assessment to mr zeman, the 68-year-old mr drahos is a supporter of ecu and nato membership, however he opposes the ecu's quota gadget for dispensing migrants.Milos zeman, seventy three
Joined the communist celebration in 1968 for the duration of the "prague spring" but was expelled in 1970 for opposing soviet intervention that crushed movements in the direction of liberal reforms
After communism fell he joined the left-leaning social democratic party and have become leader in 1993
In 2013 he have become the 1/3 president of the czech republic since it split from slovakia in 1993
In his outspoken comments on immigration he once stated that muslims had been "impossible to integrate" into europe
Within the european, he has fiercely antagonistic sanctions against moscow and has made enhancing family members with china a concern