12:57, 14-Jan-2018
Czech Presidential Election: Brief introduction of two candidates
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The two candidates Milos Zeman and Jiri Drahos are leading the first round of the Czech presidential election.
The 73-year-old Zeman is the third and current President of the Czech Republic. In the 1990s he was the leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party and served as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002. In 2013 he became the country's first directly elected President. During his presidency, he has shown his strong anti-migrant and pro-Russian views.
Zeman's rival candidate Jiri Drahos is the country's top chemist, and has been serving as the head of the Czech Academy of Sciences until 2017. The 68-year-old is regarded as being pro-Western and supportive of NATO. During the campaign, Drahos expressed concerns over the rise of populism and extremism.