Miloš Zeman

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Miloš Zeman (2019) Miloš signature

Miloš Zeman (born September 28, 1944 in Kolín , pronunciation: Milosch Seman , listen ? / I ) is a Czech politician and has been the third President of the Czech Republic since March 8, 2013 , after being Prime Minister between 1998 and 2002 . From 1993 to 2001 he was party chairman of the Czech Social Democrats , after leaving in 2007 he was co-founder and honorary chairman of the center-left party SPOZ . Audio file / audio sample

Zeman is the first Czech president to be directly elected by the people under the 2012 law.

Career

Before the Velvet Revolution

Zeman completed a distance learning course at the University of Economics in Prague , which he graduated in 1969. In the course of the Prague Spring he was briefly a member of the KSČ , from which he was excluded because of his attitude. That is why he had difficulties in finding work in the years that followed. From 1970 to 1984 he worked in a sports organization, for which he set up a prognostic center. After its closure he worked in an agricultural organization and was dismissed there in 1989 because of his political stance.

Entry and promotion in the ČSSD

From the end of 1989 he was involved in the citizens 'forum , in 1990 he was elected to the Czechoslovak parliament for the citizens' forum.

In 1992 he joined the Social Democratic Party ( ČSSD ) and was re-elected to the Czechoslovak Parliament for it, which ceased its activities on December 31, 1992 with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. From 1993 he was chairman of the Social Democrats, where he prevailed in the election against the later chairman Jiří Paroubek . In the 1996 elections he was elected to the Czech Chamber of Deputies and, as a result of a support agreement with the incumbent Prime Minister Václav Klaus , who lacked one vote to continue governing his government , immediately became President of Parliament.

Prime Minister

After the Social Democrats won the early elections to the House of Representatives in June 1998 , he was charged with forming a government and was then Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from July 17, 1998 to July 12, 2002. He used a special form of political cooperation: his minority government was supported in parliament by the ODS , this support was secured with an opposition treaty. In 2001 he gave the party chairmanship to Vladimír Špidla .

In the elections of 2002 he no longer ran (his successor was also Vladimír Špidla ) and announced that he was leaving politics.

2003 presidential candidacy

Nevertheless, in February 2003, he was run as a presidential candidate in the second round of the presidential elections then held by the House of Representatives and the Senate , but could not even garner all of the votes of his own party. In the end it was surprisingly Václav Klaus who won .

Zeman with the former Prime Minister Petr Nečas (2013)

In March 2007, Zeman left the ČSSD after a dispute with incumbent party chairman Jiří Paroubek .

In December 2009, Zeman launched the Civil Rights Party (Strana Práv Občanů, SPOZ ) and emerged as the top candidate in the 2010 general election . With 4.3 percent, the party narrowly missed entry into parliament, but it cost the Social Democrats in particular votes. After the defeat, Zeman again announced his retreat into private life.

Presidency

Zeman visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow in May 2015
Zeman visited US President Barack Obama in Washington, DC in September 2015 .

Despite his announcement of his retirement, Miloš Zeman stood as a candidate for his party in the 2013 presidential election in the Czech Republic , which was the first direct election. In the first ballot, Zeman received a slim relative majority of the votes and then won the runoff election against then Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg . He was sworn in as President before the two Houses of Parliament on March 8, 2013.

In the first round of the 2018 presidential election , he did not receive an absolute majority of 38.56%. In the runoff election on January 27, 2018, he won with 51.36% of the valid votes against the non-party Jiří Drahoš .

Positions

  • Zeman is a proponent of nuclear energy. He is in favor of the expansion of the Temelín nuclear power plant , which will secure the energy independence of the Czech Republic.
  • In contrast to his predecessor Klaus, he announced that he would abstain from extensive pardons and amnesties in the event of his election as president . From 2016 onwards he issued occasional pardons.
  • Zeman was a supporter of Croatia 's accession to the EU and hopes for Serbia to join soon . However, he is not up to the possibility of other Balkan states joining the EU . Zeman is opposed to the Czech Republic's recognition of independent Kosovo .
  • In 2010, Zeman spoke out in favor of Czech euro accession .
Zeman with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (2018)
  • Zeman represents a strong pro-Israeli position.
  • In 2019, Zeman described the fight against climate change as exaggerated and compared the discussion about it to a new religion. In this context he described himself as a heretic .

Controversy

Zeman is known for his sharp, polemical remarks.

Statements about Sudeten Germans and Muslims

In 2002, the then German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder canceled his visit to Prague because Zeman had described the Sudeten Germans as “Hitler's Fifth Column ”. Furthermore, Zeman had claimed that Czechoslovakia had done the Sudeten Germans a favor by expelling them because it had brought them " home to the Reich ". Here he classified the eviction “more moderate” than the death penalty . In the election campaign for the 2013 presidential election, he used sharp, not always factual words to his competitor Karel Schwarzenberg and called him disparagingly “Sudeťák” ( Czech for “Sudeten German”). The Austrian daily Die Presse attributes Zeman's election victory to an "unprecedented, anti-German smear campaign" against Schwarzenberg.

In February 2002, in an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz , Zeman suggested that Israel should expel the Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip , just as Czechoslovakia once expelled the Germans from the Sudetenland . In an interview, he compared the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with Adolf Hitler . In June 2011 he called Islam an “enemy”, an “anti-civilization that extends from North Africa to Indonesia. Two billion people live in it, financed partly by oil and partly by drug deals ”. He placed Muslims who believe in the Koran on a par with anti-Semites and National Socialists .

Understanding of office as president

Zeman received strong criticism when he tried to expand his powers as president contrary to the previous practice. After the failure of Petr Neča's government in 2013, Zeman disregarded the majority structure in the House of Representatives and instead of Miroslava Němcová Jiří Rusnok , who had been nominated by the previous coalition parties, commissioned Jiří Rusnok to form a non-party expert government . Zeman justified this with the aim of forcing early elections. His critics - mainly from the previous government coalition - accused Zeman of undermining the parliamentary system of government. In fact, there was no majority in favor of the Rusnok government in the vote of confidence. But there was also no clear majority for any other government constellation. The House of Representatives then dissolved itself and the early elections to the House of Representatives, sought by Zeman, took place . In the new elections, the Social Democrats even received losses of 2 percent instead of the generally expected increase in votes. Zeman then supported the efforts of Vice-Party Leader of the Social Democrats Michal Hašek to replace the incumbent party chairman and top candidate Bohuslav Sobotka . Zeman was criticized for not performing his office with the necessary neutrality. However, Hašek did not prevail. Then Zeman tasked Sobotka with forming a government.

After a radio interview with Zeman on November 2, 2014, in which the president spoke vulgarly about the Russian punk band Pussy Riot , among others , a polyphonic protest arose: Zeman had damaged the reputation of the presidential office and the state as well as his own . The former minister and opponent of Zeman, Karel Schwarzenberg , said he did not know whether a politician or a doctor should deal with Zeman's statements. A newspaper comment made it clear that the president was physically and psychologically ruined by alcohol.

Protesters showed Miloš Zeman the red card during a demonstration in Prague on November 17, 2014 .

In 2017, Zeman pardoned prisoner Jiří Kajínek, who had been convicted of several crimes and was incarcerated for a double murder . Kajínek had been convicted in the murder case on the basis of a circumstantial judgment and always emphasized his innocence - Zeman's spokesman referred accordingly to the procedural errors in the process. According to Justice Minister Robert Pelikán, the pardon was an act of mercy and not because of doubts about his guilt. During his detention, Kajínek was a. a. became well known through a film and a book.

Acceptance in the population

In November 2014, the president's popularity ratings collapsed dramatically: whereas in October 2014 58 percent of the representative respondents stated that they trust the president and 40 percent did not trust the president, in November 2014 only 37 percent stated that they trust the president, and 60 percent did Percent expressed their distrust. These were the worst popularity ratings since Zeman took office. According to a poll in early January 2016, Zeman's popularity was back at 59%. The rise in popularity has been interpreted as a reaction to Zeman's positions on the European refugee crisis.

The narrow re-election of Zeman in 2018 was seen as an indication that Czech society was now extremely polarized with regard to the president.

War in Ukraine

Zeman has repeatedly criticized the European Union's economic sanctions against Russia in the wake of the Crimean crisis and stated that the conflict in Ukraine is a real civil war and not an externally brought on conflict. In addition, the events on the Euromaidan , which led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych , were “not a democratic revolution”.

Election losers Schwarzenberg and other opposition groups classified Zeman's position as pro-Russian or "Putin-friendly".

Of all Western politicians, the Russian propaganda quotes Zeman - relative to the population - the second most frequently, directly after Angela Merkel, and praises him for his "independence". He gives legitimacy to Czech conspiracy theorists and disinformation websites .

Comments on the refugee crisis

In his Christmas address 2015, Zeman described the influx of refugees as an “organized invasion” and spoke out against the admission of refugees by his country with the words “This country is our country, it is not there for everyone and it cannot be there for everyone” . Furthermore, he appealed to young men from Syria that they should "rather fight against Islamists in their home country than flee to Europe" . Zeman had already supported a petition by his predecessor Václav Klaus in autumn 2015 , which rejects quotas and warns of "an artificial mixing of nations, cultures and different religions" . In February 2016, at a meeting of social democratic politicians in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, Zeman declared that the only solution to the refugee crisis was the "deportation of economic refugees and those who advocate religious violence and hatred" . At the beginning of August 2016, he called on the parliament in Prague to ignore EU quotas in this regard and said: "By accepting migrants we would create the breeding ground for barbaric attacks on the territory of the Czech Republic." September 2017 the judgment of the European Court of Justice on the legality of the EU refugee quotas: "When the going gets tough, it is always better to forego EU subsidies than to let migrants in."

Private life

Miloš Zeman was married to Blanka Zemanová until 1978, and in 1993 he married Ivana Bednarčíková . Zeman has two children, a son from the first marriage and a daughter from the second marriage. From 2002 until his inauguration as president, Zeman lived in Nové Veselí , where he has been an honorary citizen since August 18, 1999 . Zeman describes himself as a "tolerant atheist ".

Public appearances repeatedly suggested an alcoholic illness . He defended his alcohol consumption by saying that alcohol consumption was "as normal as the fact that you shouldn't get drunk". He also said: "Adolf Hitler was abstinent, non-smoker and vegetarian and lost the war, while British Prime Minister Winston Churchill drank a bottle of whiskey, three bottles of champagne and smoked eight cigars every day - and he won the war."

Web links

Commons : Miloš Zeman  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prezidentské volby 2018 - E15.cz. Retrieved December 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Volby 2018: Miloš Zeman, Candidate na prezidenta - E15.cz . In: Zprávy E15.cz . ( e15.cz [accessed December 19, 2017]).
  3. ↑ Milos Zeman becomes the new president. In: Spiegel Online. January 26, 2013, accessed March 8, 2013 .
  4. ↑ New Czech President Zeman wants to fight corruption in the country. Deutschlandradio, March 8, 2013, accessed on March 8, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Czech Statistical Office: Results of the 2018 presidential elections. Accessed January 27, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Zeman: Doufám, že se vstupu Srpska do dožiju EU. In: ceskatelevize.cz . April 1, 2014, accessed December 26, 2019 (Czech).
  7. ↑ Zeman about… In: pragerzeitung.cz . January 30, 2019, accessed December 26, 2019.
  8. ↑ 'I Am a Jew,' Czech President Milos Zeman Tells General Gala. In: Algemeiner.com. September 19, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Zeman criticizes climate "religion". In: orf.at . December 26, 2019, accessed December 26, 2019.
  10. ^ Elections in the Czech Republic. Milos Zeman, the thoroughbred populist in: Abendzeitung (January 27, 2013).
  11. ↑ John Piling De Balliel-Lawrora: The Myriad Chronicles . German American World Historical Society, Inc., 2010, ISBN 978-1-4535-0528-1 ( Zeman's statements in the work in the Google book search).
  12. ↑ Milos Zeman: Displacement was more moderate than the death penalty. In: Tyrolean daily newspaper . April 22, 2013, accessed March 3, 2020 .
  13. ↑ The Polterer of Prague. In: Spiegel Online. January 26, 2013, accessed March 13, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Christian Ultsch: The wages of wickedness. In: The press . January 27, 2013, accessed October 27, 2013 .
  15. ↑ Czechs wasting chance to change policy - German Handelsblatt. In: České noviny. January 27, 2013, accessed January 30, 2013 .
  16. ^ A b Andrew Osborn: Czech PM upbraided for comparing Arafat to Hitler. In: The Guardian . February 20, 2002, accessed December 26, 2013 .
  17. ^ Social Democrats tear themselves apart , Wiener Zeitung of October 29, 2013
  18. ^ Head of Social Democrats Sobotka charged with forming a government. Radio Prague, November 22, 2013, accessed December 26, 2013 .
  19. ↑ sueddeutsche.de November 5, 2014: Mob in Prague
  20. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from December 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ↑ http://www.radio.cz/de/rubrik/tagesecho/umstrittene-begnadigung-doppelmoerder-kajinek-frei Radio Prague on the pardon of Jiří Kajínek, accessed on January 18, 2018
  22. ↑ Důvěra v prezidenta Zemana se od října rekordně propadla. In: idnes.cz. November 21, 2014, accessed on November 21, 2014 (cz).
  23. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from January 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  24. ↑ Populist Zeman remains in the Frankfurter Rundschau office from January 28, 2018
  25. ↑ https://www.tt.com/artikel/9427703/zeman-tschechien-sollte-keinem-druck-von-aussen-nachgenz
  26. ^ Karel Schwarzenberg on the turning point in Prague. In: kurier.at. December 27, 2014, accessed December 22, 2017 .
  27. ↑ afp.com: Czech Republic-Ukraine-Russia-President Conflicts: Czech President against "idealization" of Ukraine. In: welt.de . January 3, 2015, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  28. ↑ http://www.prag-aktuell.cz/video/protest-gegen-milos-zeman-auf-der-prager-burg-hier-hat-putins-marionette-ihren-sitz/08122014-10677
  29. ↑ How Czech President Miloš Zeman Became Putin's Man , The Observer, January 25, 2018
  30. ↑ dpa / KNA / rct: Czech Republic: Zeman calls the influx of refugees "organized invasion". In: welt.de . December 27, 2015, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Overview: The opponents of the “welcoming culture” . In: euractiv.de, September 9, 2015, accessed April 30, 2016, 1:12 pm.
  32. ↑ Milos Zeman: Czech President calls for "deportation of economic refugees". In: spiegel.de, February 12, 2016, accessed April 30, 2016, 1:20 pm.
  33. ↑ "We would create the breeding ground for barbaric attacks." Www.zeit.de, August 2, 2016
  34. ↑ Zeman criticizes ECJ ruling on refugee quotas. www.zeit.de, September 6, 2017
  35. ^ The Wall Street Journal : Czech President Milos Zeman Casts Himself as Unifier
  36. ^ Konrad Kramar, Jana Patsch: The Czech Republic discusses power games and the president's drinking habits. In: kurier.at, August 16, 2013 (accessed January 2, 2016)
  37. ↑ ORF.at : Zeman justifies alcohol consumption
personal data
SURNAME Zeman, Miloš
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech politician, member of the House of Representatives, President (from 2013), Prime Minister (1998–2002)
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolín