The Czech Republic will host the second round of presidential elections

The Czech Republic will host the second round of the presidential election, reports Lidové Noviny. According to the results of the processing of 99.74 percent of the ballots, the current President Milos Zeman scored 38.65 percent of the vote, his opponent Academician Irji Dragosh - 26.56.

The vote took place from the afternoon of Friday to 14:00 (16:00 Moscow time) Saturday. In total, nine candidates claimed the presidency. The third place was taken by the ex -Posol of the Czech Republic in France Pavel Fisher (10.21 percent), the fourth - businessman Mikhal Gorachk (9,16). The second voting round will be held on January 26 and 27.

Dragosh advocates the expansion of cooperation with the EU and to preserve sanctions against Russia. He insists that Prague should "play a more active role in the EU" and supports the adoption by the Czech Republic of the euro as a currency.

“It looks promising,” the results of the first round commented on the Dragosh. “It was confirmed that a significant number of people in the Czech Republic want change. We took a big step forward to realize our dream, our efforts to improve the political and social climate in the country.” At the same time, he added that the fight against Zeman in the second round "will be tough."

Zeman, who took the presidency in January 2013, repeatedly spoke out for the abolition of anti -Russian sanctions and approved the policy of Vladimir Putin. In 2014, participants in a rally on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the velvet revolution booed Zeman for pro-Russian statements and threw it with eggs to cries "Shame!" And "Resignation!". In 2015, Zeman called the migration crisis an “organized invasion” to Europe, and said that Muslims would not be able to integrate into European countries.

In October, in the Czech parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic , the “AKCE Nespokojen nail Občanů, Ano) billionaire Andrei Babish, who is considered an ally of Zeman, won a confident victory. The ANO movement gained 29.6 percent of votes, almost three times more than its closest pursuers. This gave the Babish party 78 seats in a new composition of parliament.

The second place was taken by the Civil Democratic Party - 11.3 percent, 25 deputies. The Pirate Party received 22 places in parliament, which gained 10.8 percent of the vote, and the extreme right -right party "Freedom and direct democracy" (10,64). The ruled Social Democratic Party received only 15 seats in the new parliament. The same number of deputies have the Communist Party of the Czech Republic and Moravia.