NATO Soldier In Prague Castle Who Is Petr Pavel Who Will Soon Take The Czech Presidential Baton

In the information infusion that world news agencies produce for us every day, and national and local media zealously distribute to us, at the beginning of September last year, a rare news from the Czech Republic was found The news of as many as 70,000 people who filled Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest against the high prices of electricity, gas, basic necessities of life, against the conservative coalition government and to express general dissatisfaction with European political and North Atlantic military integration was pushed into the then dripfeed preparation.

During this heterogeneous performance of social impotence, criticism of high inflation, demands for neutrality and the cessation of sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine were heard cries for continued purchase of cheap Russian gas and general appeals to the national interest with slogans like "Czech Republic first".

Not feeling ready to delve into the content of the protesters' fears and concerns, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala then said that the organizers of the protests were pro-Russian extremists working against the interests of the Czech Republic, choosing the tactic of ignoring them in the hope that the protesters' mutual ideological differences would save the liberal-conservative center from creating a long-term political threat to him By the end of the year, the same reasons provoked two slightly smaller protests and one counter-protest by sympathizers of the Ukrainian struggle on the streets of the capital, and the proportions of the visible division of Czech society were put on paper by the first elections in Europe in 2023.

After winning the largest number of votes in the first round of the Czech presidential elections ahead of rich man and former prime minister Andrej Babiš and economist Danuša Nerudova, 61-year-old Petr Pavel, retired general, former military chief, former high-ranking nato official and political novice, in the second became the newly elected Czech president in the round at the end of January with 58 3 percent of the votes won.

As is often the case in the political systems of Western and associated countries, these elections also served as a referendum where the voters will declare for or against the image and actions of the dominant politician, whereby Pavel profited from the unpopularity of the right-wing demagogue Babis, one of the richest The Czech and the man who was compared by various analysts to the figures of Donald Trump, Silvio Berlusconi and the alternative, party-active versions of Ivica Todorić Succeeding in attracting a record 70 percent turnout in the second round, the presidential election campaign was shaped by a narrative of responsibility against populism, which many Czech voters approached on the principle of choosing the lesser evil, mostly voting against the billionaire and privatization winner.

In a country with 10 5 million inhabitants, of which 8.

2 million have the right to vote, Pavel earned as many as 1 4 million new votes in the election campaign, which secured him a central place at the inauguration on March 9 and a stay in Prague Castle until 2028.

Years

Cleanser in the political mire Nevertheless, the arch-bearer of the Euro-Atlantic heritage will have to make an effort to prove to a considerable part of the Czech population, and even to those who circled his name as a "clogged nose", that he is not exclusive, a tactless operative whose political beginning boils down to one mission – silencing the growing anti-NATO and anti-EU sentiment in Švejk's country Petr Pavel ended his military career in 2018, leaving the high position of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, that of the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, which he held three years earlier.

The media in Croatia already wrote about the man who until the middle of the decade was the Chief of Staff of the Czech Armed Forces as a former lieutenant colonel who, as the leader of 29 Czech and Slovak infantrymen, rescued 55 French soldiers from the crossfire of Croatian and Serbian snipers in the villages of Gornji and Donji Karin near Benkovac, which is an undertaking that paved the way for him to climb the French-colored ladder of international military structures The controversy at the time and the quick disbanding of UNPROFOR did not harm the reputation of this war champion, who in the last few years built a very good PR on this story.

Just after his retirement, a substantial biography based on Pavel's military memoirs was written about his life, heroic exploits and the difficult relationship he had as a soldier with his family, and his bright and polished image pushed him to the top of the list of names from the first day of his return to the Czech Republic which the establishment in the Czech Republic will oppose the notorious Andrej Babiš.

As an independent presidential candidate, whose communication was not based on political, but on character values ​​such as "truth, dignity, respect and humility", Pavel immediately received the support of the ruling coalition Zajedno (Spolu), which decided that it would not nominate its own party candidate next to him This petty-bourgeois calculation ultimately proved to be successful.

With his supposed impartiality and unsullied by the mire of narrow party interests in the parliamentary arena, Pavel stood out among the numerous independent candidates as "our better paper that succeeded in the white world" who, when they no longer had successful footballers, spread the word about the existence of the small Czech Republic in the West, so full of experience, knowledge and contacts, he returns home to help his morally depraved and corrupt nation Playing this card, Pavel emphasized in the campaign that he wanted to oppose "the world of chaos, failure to solve problems, personal benefits and background influences" to which his opponent Andrej Babiš and the still current president of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman belong.

Despite the fact that Zeman, former prime minister and a native of Czech politics, always a strong advocate of Western integration, during whose mandate the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999, decisively condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stopped his previous calls for dialogue on the issue of Crimea and Donbass, Pavel accused his predecessor of losing integrity of the office of the president and "bringing the Czech Republic to the brink of pro-Chinese and pro-Russian policies" On the altar of Atlanticism Moving away from Zeman's policy of repositioning, maneuvering, but also the ability to reach compromise solutions, Pavel advocates further unfettered military aid to Ukraine and expanding anti-russian sanctions as much as possible, ignoring the fact that unilateral economic measures, contrary to their proclaimed purpose, have caused the greatest damage countries of the European Union.

In an interview he gave to German DW after his election victory, the president-in-waiting said that NATO should "seriously consider sending fighter jets to Ukraine, regardless of the fact that this logistical undertaking will take at least half a year", proudly adding that in power to stand for everything he stood for during his military career "It is in our vital interest to support Ukraine, the predominance of Russia would also mean our defeat," Pavel recited in a monotone voice, counting on the fact that the subject knows who are "us" and who are "them" in the whole story.

Wryly criticizing unnamed Western countries for their "reserved attitude" when it comes to sending weapons of newer generations to the East, Pavel told the French AFP that the Ukrainian army will soon become "the most experienced and best prepared army in Europe" which is the basis for Ukraine's chances of joining NATO and the European Union, which according to him are a matter of political will and long-term strategic interests.

It is completely clear that Petar Pavel's triumph is at the same time a victory of the pro-Western elite over the Czech balancing attempts and Orbanist twists Looking at this country on the political map of Europe, we can conclude that the possibility of Prague leaving via Budapest is no longer realistic and that the Czech Republic is completely and unconditionally on the side of NATO and the European Union associated with that alliance due to its internal political situation.

Commentators who would wave their hands at the claims that the Czech Republic is ruled not only from Brussels but also from Washington would have many difficulties in their argumentation, but this irrelevant semantics would have to remain in the shadow of the ominous evaluation which says that the prospects of the Slavic states for peace mediation between the West and Russia are getting slimmer, and their voices are getting quieter It is not necessary to go into the deep past and dig for mothballs in order to assess that by electing Pavel, Europe has gained another hard-liner ready to reduce the space for diplomacy, dialogue and a compromise resolution of the burning claims that Russia is "more dangerous than the Islamic State", while in its short-term pensioners for American military think-tanks talked about the imperialist plans of this "defense" alliance, saying that "NATO's expansion should have no limits".

If he is not just a passive orthodox believer of Atlanticism, Pavel made it widely known in one of his first post-election moves when he held a telephone conversation with the president of internationally unrecognized Taiwan, the increasingly unpopular locally Tsai Ing-wen Although the Czech Republic, like the rest of the EU, does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan and officially follows the "One China" policy, Pavel announced that he would not oppose a personal meeting with the de facto leaders of the island that still does not claim independence, which would be a precedent in European politics.

Beijing sent a diplomatic note at the expense of the actions of the not-yet-ruling president, but these protests hardly upset Pavel and his deliberate testing of Chinese patience, given that he expressed his disdain for the leading strategic rival of his cliques with the statement "They, their strategic goals and principles are not compatible with Western democracies" The fact that the Czech Republic, like Croatia, has a parliamentary political system in which the role of the president is limited to ceremonial and high appointments, with a certain diplomatic role and the function of supreme commander of the armed forces, will only serve as a very slight relief to those who are not looking forward to being burned in a nuclear cataclysm.

Contemporary politics in the Czech Republic, with its narrowed horizons, does not differ much from those in other post-transition countries such as Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia or the Baltic trio The political deadness and mediocrity that prevent the advancement of new and fresh ideas are partly the result of loyal, reactive, frivolous and unprincipled oppositions that participate as secondary actors in a false political struggle, the one that does not reach beyond micro-criticism of budgetary techno-management and hidden material-interest groupings.

Rebellion of good soldiers In the Czech version of such a pattern, it is possible for a five-member coalition to function in power, consisting of the conservative coalition Zajedno (composed of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) of Prime Minister Fiala and the Christian Democratic options KDU-ČSL and TOP09), as well as the Czech version of the local Most called STAN and youthful liberals from the Czech Pirate Party This group formed after the parliamentary elections two years ago, when the Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) of oligarch Andrej Babiš, still the most represented Czech party, showed no coalition potential.

In the absence of any form of left in Czech political life, and not even the exhausted social democrats from the ČSSD, who do not have a single representative in the current convocation, Babiš opportunely recognized the ideological void and took upon himself the rhetoric of peace, advocating Czech neutrality in the intensified proxy war in Ukraine, but ultimately unsuccessfully As the prime minister of the minority government created after the 2017 elections, the controversial businessman failed to create an image different from the stereotypical corrupt rich man, agro-tycoon and media mogul for whom politics serves as a terrain for recognizing new business opportunities and increasing power.

This reputation, along with pro-Russian labels and embezzlement lawsuits against him, took away his presidential hopes after he lost the prime ministership For the Czech population, it is devastating to learn that against high inflation of 15 percent with the projection of further growth, there is no one to fight the extremely high energy prices caused by the abandonment of Russian gas, on which the Czech Republic was completely dependent, and the abnormal housing prices.

According to Bloomberg analysis, at the beginning of last year the Czech Republic was the European country with the highest growth in real estate prices, up to 22 percent per quarter, while today it is threatened by the bursting of that real estate bubble with comprehensive consequences Prague suffers a particular problem, where the rate of home ownership is falling rapidly, along with the affordability of renting, which is disproportionately affecting the young population.

Although the alarming nature of this problem is widely recognized, the share of foreign and concentrated private ownership of the Czech housing stock is not decreasing, which is an infallible recipe for the explosion of a socio-economic bomb that will affect millions Given that the next Czech parliamentary elections are still two and a half years away, the unhindered rule of liberal democracy at all levers of national power has the opportunity to show that it can make the increasingly difficult and expensive life of Czechs easier.

However, even the realization of the brightest forecasts cannot solve the causes of the general European crisis, which has so far engulfed all aspects of the continental economy, except for the financial-banking and stock-market-speculative ones Given that the Czech rebellion showed that the anti-systemic opposition has the ability to gather impressive numbers, it is to be expected that a more thorough connection of economic problems with foreign political positioning will create new political forces that will present a new challenge to the administrators of the post-socialist regime.

It will be difficult for increasingly poor Czech citizens to reconcile with the fact that their country has so far sent Ukraine as much as 217 million dollars in military aid, money that the country destroyed by war and corruption will not be able to repay for a long time, while the dangerous incitements and announcements of the new president rub salt on cold sores Pavel's statements so far are an unmistakable sign that the Czech Republic is heading towards the path of Latvia and Lithuania, considering that maintaining a hostile atmosphere with scandalous public appearances, threats, chases and imposing chauvinistic conflicts is the role these peripheral barking dogs have taken in the NATO constellation.

Silencing, arrogantly dealing with dissonant voices, sharing epithets of extremists, Russian useful idiots, anti-nationals, of anti-European or anti-civilizational elements are undemocratic methods that cannot solve the roots of the problem, but at the same time they are symptoms of the loss of the illusion called inclusiveness of a liberal set of values Disagreeing with the status of a good soldier is only the first prerequisite for a policy aimed at the mass of the people, which will consistently refuse to add fuel to the fire of war, channel the natural growth of longings for peace, and oppose one's own oppression under the guise of big oligarchs, criminals and NATO generals.

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