“We had Havel, now we have Pavel!” Liberal and progressive Czechs text each other with relief on Saturday evening. Former NATO general Petr Pavel (61) was convincingly elected president of the Czech Republic just before that, with more than 58 percent of the vote. Pavel not only defeated the populist oligarch Andrej Babis, he is also the first president since the national hero Václav Havel (1993-2003) who is outspokenly pro-European and champions human rights. “Values such as truth, dignity, respect and modesty have won,” said Pavel during his victory speech in Prague.
The Czech presidency is a primarily ceremonial position, but with the election of Pavel, the country is opting for Western values and generous aid to Ukraine. In the campaign, his opponent Babis aimed precisely at declining support for the country besieged by Russia. The former prime minister suggested that the Czech Republic would become a party to the war under Pavel’s leadership. And he undermined the NATO agreement that an attacked member state should be defended by allies. “I know what war is and I don’t wish that on anyone,” Pavel responded to Babis’ allegations.
Paratroopers
Pavel is non-partisan and politically inexperienced, but boasts a long military and international career. He grew up in communist Czechoslovakia as the son of a professional soldier and opted for the army himself. In the 1980s he was a commander of paratroopers and was trained as an intelligence officer. After the peaceful split of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, he served the United Nations during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia. He was decorated both in the Czech Republic and in France for evacuating, also in 1993, a group of French soldiers under fire.
Pavel then rose – via the operational NATO center in Brunssum, Limburg, among others – to senior military positions in the Czech Republic. In 2015, he became Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, the first and only serviceman from a former Warsaw Pact country to hold this position. After his retirement in 2018, he prepared ostentatiously for a run for president. For example, he founded an organization with other prominent Czechs to help fight the corona pandemic and traveled around the country on a motorcycle to meet voters. With his gray beard and head of hair, he became a familiar face in the public debate, without joining any political party.
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Pavel’s election strengthens European unity in support for Ukraine, but is above all a boost for the centre-right Czech government. The cabinet, led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, has so far had to deal with controversial President Milos Zeman, who presented himself as pro-Russian in the past and vetoed legislation on several occasions. In September, Fiala’s coalition already won the senate elections against Babis’ ANO party and now it will also have a kindred spirit in Prague Castle, where the president resides.