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Tag: andrej babis

  • Czech election winner Babis: No money to Ukraine for weapons

    The likely future prime minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babiš, has reaffirmed his stance on not sending arms money to Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion.

    “We will not give Ukraine a single crown from our budget for weapons,” the right-wing populist and billionaire announced in Prague on Wednesday. “We have no money for the Czech Republic.”

    The EU and NATO member state continues to use its own currency the crown.

    Babiš, previously prime minister 2017-2021, pointed out that Kiev already receives billions in financial aid through the EU. He clarified that Czech arms companies could continue exporting to Ukraine.

    “We have no problem with that,” the 71-year-old said.

    At the same time, he called on NATO to adopt a Czech ammunitions initiative.

    Approximately 3.5 million rounds of large-calibre ammunition have been provided to Ukraine as part of the project, which was a flagship idea of the centre-right coalition led by outgoing Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which lost the recent election.

    The ammunition comes from unnamed third countries, with Germany among the financial contributors.

    Babiš is holding initial talks with two far-right parties, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists’ Party, about forming a future government.

    SPD leader Tomio Okamura has already caused outrage by demanding the replacement of the country’s police chief.

    This comes after law enforcement authorities requested the lifting of Okamura’s parliamentary immunity over allegations of incitement to hatred in connection with an anti-EU migration poster campaign.

    President Petr Pavel has announced that the newly elected lower house of parliament will convene for its first session on November 3.

    Babiš’s ANO movement will hold 80 of the 200 seats and, with the support of SPD and the Motorists’ Party, would secure a majority of 108.

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  • We should monitor all Russians living in the West, Czech leader says

    We should monitor all Russians living in the West, Czech leader says

    Czech President Petr Pavel says Russian citizens living abroad should be put under “strict surveillance” by intelligence services in their host countries.

    “All Russians living in Western countries should be monitored much more than in the past because they are citizens of a nation that leads an aggressive war,” Pavel said in an interview with Radio Free Europe released Thursday.

    “I can be sorry for these people, but at the same time when we look back, when the Second World War started, all the Japanese population living in the United States were under a strict monitoring regime as well,” said the Czech president. “That’s simply a cost of war.”

    Asked what he implied by “monitoring,” Pavel said he meant “being under the scrutiny of the security services.”

    During World War II, about 120,000 people of Japanese descent — most of whom were American citizens, and half of them children — were forcibly put in internment camps following the December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack by Japanese forces. The camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by U.S. soldiers. Then-President Ronald Reagan formally apologized over the camps back in 1988.

    U.S. President Joe Biden said in February it was “one of the most shameful periods in American history.”

    Russian citizens have fled their country by the hundreds of thousands since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — including to avoid being drafted into the Russian army. According to Statista, there were about 6.6 million Russians living in Europe and Northern America in 2020.

    The pro-Western Czech president, who has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, used to be a NATO general — a highly unusual background for a European leader.

    He was elected in January, after running as an independent, defeating former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš with 58 percent of the vote.

    Pavel’s position is largely ceremonial but, as the Czech head of state, he can still exert influence on the direction of the country, as previous Czech leaders have done in the past.

    Nicolas Camut

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  • Retired Czech general Petr Pavel wins presidential election | CNN

    Retired Czech general Petr Pavel wins presidential election | CNN



    Reuters
     — 

    Former army chief and high NATO official Petr Pavel won the Czech Republic’s presidential election on Saturday with a pledge to keep the country firmly anchored in the West and bridge society’s political differences.

    Pavel, a 61-year-old retired general running for office for the first time, won 58.3% of the vote with all voting districts reporting final results, defeating billionaire ex-premier Andrej Babis, a dominant but polarizing force in Czech politics for a decade.

    Pavel, a social liberal who had campaigned as an independent and gained the backing of the center-right government, conveyed a message of unity when addressing his supporters and journalists at a Prague concert venue on Saturday as results showed he had won.

    “Values such as truth, dignity, respect and humility won,” he said.

    “I am convinced that these values are shared by the vast majority of us, it is worth us trying to make them part of our lives and also return them to the Prague Castle and our politics.”

    Pavel has also fully backed continued support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion.

    Czech presidents do not have many day-to-day duties but they pick prime ministers and central bank heads, have a say in foreign policy, are powerful opinion makers, and can push the government on policies.

    Pavel will take office in March, replacing outgoing Milos Zeman, a divisive figure himself during his two terms in office over the past decade who had backed Babis as his successor.

    Zeman had pushed for closer ties with Beijing and also with Moscow until Russia invaded Ukraine, and Pavel’s election will mark a sharp shift.

    Turnout in the runoff vote that ended on Saturday was a record high 70.2%.

    The result of the election will only become official when published in a legal journal on Tuesday, but the outcome of the poll was already clear on Saturday.

    Babis, 68, a combative business magnate who heads the biggest opposition party in parliament, had attacked Pavel as the government’s candidate. He sought to attract voters struggling with soaring prices by vowing to push the government do more to help them.

    Babis and Prime Minister Petr Fiala congratulated Pavel on his victory. Slovakia’s liberal President Zuzana Caputova appeared at Pavel’s headquarters to congratulate him, a demonstration of their close political positions.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Pavel on his election on Twitter and said he looked forward to close cooperation.

    Pavel has backed keeping the central European country of 10.5 million firmly in the European Union and NATO military alliance, and supports the government’s continued aid to Ukraine.

    He supports adopting the euro, a topic that successive governments have kept on the back burner, and supports same-sex marriage and other progressive policies.

    A career soldier, Pavel joined the army in Communist times, was decorated with a French military cross for valor during peacekeeping in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and later rose to lead the Czech general staff and become chairman of NATO’s military committee for three years before retiring in 2018.

    “I voted for Mr. Pavel because he is a decent and reasonable man and I think that the young generation has a future with him,” said Abdulai Diop, 60, after voting in Prague on Saturday.

    Babis had campaigned on fears of the war in Ukraine spreading, and sought to offer to broker peace talks while suggesting Pavel, as a former soldier, could drag the Czechs into a war, a claim Pavel rejected.

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