Gunny
01-10-2018, 09:35 PM
Czechs go to the polls this weekend in the first round of a presidential election. The two-day vote is being seen as a referendum on the outspoken 73-year-old incumbent Milos Zeman, and the direction of the country.
One of Milos Zeman's first acts as president was highly symbolic.
On 3 April 2013, a month after his election, Mr Zeman watched as the blue and yellow EU flag was raised over Prague Castle, seat of the Czech president - something his predecessor Vaclav Klaus had staunchly refused to do.
The act went some way to reassuring at least some of the urban, liberal, pro-European Czechs - most of whom did not vote for him - that the country's geopolitical position would, perhaps, be secure in his hands after all.
That reassurance did not last long. Today the country is split like never before over President Zeman and where his true loyalties lie.
OutspokenFor most of the candidates vying to replace him in the upcoming presidential election, restating the Czech Republic's Western orientation is high on the agenda.
"Prague Castle needs to be fumigated," Michal Horacek, music producer, betting agency entrepreneur and now candidate for president, told the BBC.
"I want the castle to be like a shop window, a bright light of transparency for this country."
President Zeman has become one of the EU's most outspoken opponents of sanctions against Moscow, with his political ally - newly appointed Prime Minister Andrej Babis - echoing his view.
cont ...http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42619538
Hell, I thought this was about Trump at first.:laugh:
One of Milos Zeman's first acts as president was highly symbolic.
On 3 April 2013, a month after his election, Mr Zeman watched as the blue and yellow EU flag was raised over Prague Castle, seat of the Czech president - something his predecessor Vaclav Klaus had staunchly refused to do.
The act went some way to reassuring at least some of the urban, liberal, pro-European Czechs - most of whom did not vote for him - that the country's geopolitical position would, perhaps, be secure in his hands after all.
That reassurance did not last long. Today the country is split like never before over President Zeman and where his true loyalties lie.
OutspokenFor most of the candidates vying to replace him in the upcoming presidential election, restating the Czech Republic's Western orientation is high on the agenda.
"Prague Castle needs to be fumigated," Michal Horacek, music producer, betting agency entrepreneur and now candidate for president, told the BBC.
"I want the castle to be like a shop window, a bright light of transparency for this country."
President Zeman has become one of the EU's most outspoken opponents of sanctions against Moscow, with his political ally - newly appointed Prime Minister Andrej Babis - echoing his view.
cont ...http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42619538
Hell, I thought this was about Trump at first.:laugh: