The first popularly elected president of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, has been in office since March 2013. He is an experienced politician, previously served as prime minister of the Czech Republic, and was a member of parliament for many years.
Origin, childhood and youth
The current president of the Czech Republic was born in the town of Kolin in the family of a postal clerk and a teacher. His father left the family early and did not raise his son, so Milos was raised by his mother and grandmother. He was a sickly child, since childhood he was diagnosed with a heart defect, which in his youth served as the basis for exemption from military service.
Even in 1963, in the senior year of high school, the uncompromising character of Milos showed up when he invited the teacher to discuss his essay based on a book about the first president of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk, banned in Czechoslovakia. Then Milos had to face for the first time the restriction of freedom of speech: at first he was not allowed to take the final exams, and then he was not given the recommendation necessary for entering the university.
Years of study and first steps in politics
Two years future presidentIn the Czech Republic, he worked in the accounting department of the Tatra plant in his hometown, before he was able to enter the correspondence department of the University of Economics in Prague. Two years later, he is transferred to the full-time department and moves to the capital. At the university, he is noted as a very capable student. Milos becomes the organizer of the discussion club, actively participates in the discussion of current political processes.
And it was 1968, the time of the "Prague Spring", when the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, headed by Alexander Dubcek, put forward the concept of building "socialism with a human face". Milos Zeman fully supports these aspirations and joins the Communist Party the same year.
However, the hopes of the Czechoslovak reformers were not destined to come true. The troops of the Warsaw Pact countries were introduced into the country. Political purges began within it. The current president of the Czech Republic was also subjected to them, and in 1969 he was expelled from the Communist Party. This coincided with the end of the university, and the young economist immediately felt difficulties in getting a job.
Career in socialist Czechoslovakia
Thirteen years the current president of the Czech Republic has been working in a sports organization. Then, in the mid-80s, he moved to the Agrodat agricultural enterprise and, finally, got the opportunity to do research in the field of economics. Their result was his article "Design and reconstruction", published in 1989 in one of the scientific journals and containing sharp criticism of the economicpolicy of the Czechoslovak authorities.
Readers of the older generation probably remember the public outcry caused in the USSR by the article "Advances and Debts" by economist Nikolai Shmelev published in Novy Mir in the summer of 1987. That's about the same response was caused by Zeman's article. It was actively discussed in the press and on television. The authorities tried to put pressure on Zeman. He even lost his job, but soon revolutionary changes broke out in the country.
The "Velvet Revolution" and the beginning of a political career
In the fall of 1989, mass protest demonstrations begin in Prague. The future President of the Czech Republic Zeman takes an active part in them. He speaks at rallies, compares the standard of living in Czechoslovakia with African countries, and such arguments are a huge hit with his listeners.
Milos Zeman becomes one of the leaders of the organization "Civil Forum", which became the representative of the protesters in negotiations with the authorities, writes the first political program of the forum. After a peaceful transition of power from the communists to representatives of democratic forces, he goes to work at an academic research institute engaged in economic forecasting, and in 1990 becomes a deputy of the renewed parliament.
Career in the Czech Republic
Since 1992, the future president of the Czech Republic was a member of the Social Democratic Party. According to its list, in the same year he was elected to parliament, and soon became the chairman of this party. As a social democrat, Zeman was re-elected to parliament in 1996,after which he took the post of chairman of its lower house.
Early parliamentary elections in 1998 brought victory to the Social Democrats led by Zeman, and he became the prime minister of the Czech Republic. Under his leadership, the country became a member of NATO and acquired a professional army. The Zeman government has completed the privatization of state property and the construction of the Temelín nuclear power plant in South Bohemia.
In 2001, as a result of internal party disagreements, Zeman was removed from the post of head of the party, and the following year he resigned from the post of head of government. In 2007, he left the ranks of the Social Democrats, and in 2009 founded the "Civil Rights Party", which has not yet been able to break into parliamentary elections.
The first popularly elected President of the Czech Republic
The two predecessors of Milos Zeman in this post, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus, were elected by parliament. Thanks to an amendment to the Czech constitution, adopted in 2011, the president of the country began to be elected by direct popular vote. The main powers of the President of the Czech Republic, the head of the country, are that he represents it at the international level and is the Supreme Commander of its Armed Forces.
In the first round of the 2013 elections, Zeman received a relative majority of the vote and defeated the then Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg in the second round. He was sworn in as President before both Houses of Parliament on March 8, 2013.
Zeman's attitude towards Russia
Unlike his European counterparts, Czech President Milos Zeman emphasizes hisfriendly attitude towards our country. He spoke disapprovingly of the economic sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation. Unlike many European politicians, he openly criticized the actions of the Ukrainian authorities in Donbas.
A vivid confirmation of Zeman's attitude towards our country was his presence (the only European leader!) on May 9 in Moscow at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. At the same time, it was noticeable that it was difficult for him to move: when walking, he leans on a stick. However, nothing prevented Milos Zeman, a true friend of Russia, from coming to honor the memory of millions of our compatriots who gave their lives in the fight against fascism.
