Polls open today for the Czech Republic’s first direct presidential election. The new Czech leader is expected to be more pro-European than current president Václav Klaus, who has frequently angered EU lawmakers with his stark Euro-scepticism.
“Anyone who has a chance to become president is more pro-European than Klaus,” Jiří Pehe, a Czech political scientist, told the Financial Times.
There will probably not be a clear winner in the first election round, which takes place today and Saturday. If none of the 10 candidates gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the two top contenders will face off again in a second election round on Jan. 25. A run-off between former prime ministers Miloš Zeman and Jan Fischer is widely expected.
The president does not have much executive power in the Czech Republic but mostly represents the country abroad.
