Former general Petr Pavel wins the presidential elections in the Czech Republic

Former general Petr Pavel has won the presidential elections in the Czech Republic this Saturday, with a clear advantage over former prime minister and tycoon Andrej Babis ―fifth fortune in the Czech Republic, according to Forbes― who has acknowledged his defeat and congratulated the winner .

With close to 90% of the votes counted, the candidate supported by the liberal center-right government coalition obtained 57% of the votes, compared to 43% of his rival.

Participation, in record numbers, stood at 69.8% in this decisive second round.

Pavel, with the electoral motto "restore tranquility and order to the country", has been imposed, in the absence of full scrutiny, in 10 of the 14 regions of the Central European country.

His rival, populist magnate and former president Andrej Babis, led an aggressive campaign in which he accused Pavel of wanting to drag the country into war, in the shadow of the Ukraine conflict.

The controversial figure of Babis seems to have mobilized the vote against him, as he himself came to recognize in the final stretch of the campaign, in which he declared that the elections were a referendum on his person.

As an independent candidate, and despite his political inexperience, Pavel has attracted voters with a direct and sober speech, to which he has managed to imbue a conciliatory tone.

He began his campaign on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and dressed in a flannel shirt, an image that led some media to describe his arrival on the scene as a "flannel revolution", alluding to the 1989 "velvet revolution" led by the playwright Vaclav Havel.

The country's prime minister, Petr Fiala, has congratulated Pavel on his victory and has harshly criticized Babis for the populism exhibited "in one of the most disgusting campaigns in modern history" of the country, marked by threats to both candidates and a atmosphere of fear surrounding the Ukrainian war.

“Populism has been directly linked to extremism, which is very dangerous.

It is good that there is a president with the purpose of uniting different sectors and calming conflicts.

I look forward to working with President Pavel”, Fiala declared, according to the Denik news portal.

Babis was accused of alleged fraud in subsidies from the European Union, which reproaches him for his conflict of interest as a businessman and politician.

In addition, in recent years the investigation of the Pandora Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed that Babis financed the purchase, in 2009, of properties in the south of France, including a castle, with money from companies in paradises. prosecutors.

Pavel, 61, a former paratrooper and retired NATO soldier, will be the fourth president of the Czech Republic, which has elected its heads of state by popular vote since 2013. Between 1989 and 2008, the country's president was elected by the Parliament.

Pavel remains in office the controversial Social Democrat Milos Zeman, a political ally of Babis, who despite his defeat on Saturday will remain the leader of the main opposition party.

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