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 for many years was a member of parliament.
Origin, childhood and youth
The current president of the Czech Republic was born in the town of Colin in the family of a postal employee and teacher. His father left his family early and did not raise his son, so Milos was raised by his mother and grandmother. He was a sickly child, from childhood he was diagnosed with a heart defect, which served as a basis in his youth for exemption from military service.
Back in 1963, Milos showed an uncompromising character in the high school graduation class when he invited the teacher to discuss his essay on the basis of a book on the first president of Czechoslovakia Masaryk, forbidden in Czechoslovakia. Then Milos had to face the restriction of freedom of speech for the first time: at first he was not allowed to take final exams, and then he was not given the recommendations necessary for entering a university.
Years of study and first steps in politics
For two years, the future president of the Czech Republic worked in the accounting department of the Tatra plant in his hometown before being able to enter the correspondence department of the University of Economics in Prague. Two years later, he was transferred to day care and moved to the capital. At university, he is noted as a very capable student. Milos becomes the organizer of a discussion club, actively participates in the discussion of current political processes.
And in the courtyard 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 in the same year joins the Communist Party.
However, the hopes of the Czechoslovak reformers did not come true. The troops of the Warsaw Treaty countries were introduced into the country . Inside her, political purges began. 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 graduation from the university, and the young economist immediately felt the difficulty of finding a job.
Career in Socialist Czechoslovakia
For thirteen years, the current president of the Czech Republic has been working in a sports organization. Then, in the mid-80s, he transferred to the agricultural enterprise "Agrodat" 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 economic policies of the Czechoslovak authorities.
Readers of the older generation probably remember the public resonance in the USSR caused by the article “Advances and Debts” by economist Nikolai Shmelev, published in the summer of 1987 in the New World. Here is about the same response and the article called Zeman. She was actively discussed in print 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 protests began 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 huge success among 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 communists to representatives of democratic forces, he goes to work in an academic research institute engaged in economic forecasting, and in 1990 he becomes a member of the renewed parliament.
Careers in the Czech Republic
Since 1992, the future president of the Czech Republic was a member of the Social Democratic Party. According to her list, in the same year he was elected to parliament, and soon became chairman of this party. As a social democrat, Zeman was re-elected to parliament in 1996, after which he took over as chairman of his lower house.
The extraordinary parliamentary elections of 1998 brought victory to the Social Democrats, led by Zeman, and he became Czech Prime Minister. Under his leadership, the country became a member of NATO and acquired a professional army. The Zeman government completed the privatization of state property and the construction of the Temelin nuclear power plant in southern 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 also 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 so far has not been able to break through in parliamentary elections.
The first president of the Czech Republic, elected popularly
The two predecessors of Milos Zeman in this post, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus, were elected by the parliament. Thanks to the 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 her at the international level and is the Supreme Commander of its Armed Forces.
In the first round of the 2013 election, Zeman received a relative majority of votes and won the second round of the then Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. His oath as president in front of both houses of parliament took place on March 8, 2013.
Zeman's attitude to Russia
Unlike his European colleagues, Czech President Milos Zeman emphasizes his friendly 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 the Donbass.
A vivid confirmation of Zeman’s attitude to our country was his presence (the only European leader!) On May 9 in Moscow to celebrate 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.