Czechia is having its presidential election on the 27th and its between the right-populist ANO2011 candidate Andrej Babiš, the richest man in Czechia and former primeminister, and Petr Pavel who is the candidate for all other parties.
Andrej Babiš (left):
>In September 2015, deputy prime minister Babiš called for NATO intervention against human trafficking in the Mediterranean.[40] After talks on the migrant crisis with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Babiš said that "NATO is not interested in refugees, although Turkey, a NATO member, is their entrance gate to Europe and smugglers operate on Turkish territory".[41]
>Babiš rejected the European Union's refugee quotas,[42] saying: "I will not accept refugee quotas [for the Czech Republic]. ... We must react to the needs and fears of the citizens of our country. We must guarantee the security of Czech citizens. Even if we are punished by sanctions."[43] After the 2016 Berlin truck attack, he said that "unfortunately... [Angela Merkel's "open-door" migration] policy is responsible for this dreadful act. It was she who let migrants enter Germany and the whole of Europe in uncontrolled waves, without papers, therefore without knowing who they really are."[44][45]
>In October 2021, Babiš was named in the Pandora Papers leak. He did not declare the use of an offshore investment company in the purchase of 16 properties, including two villas, in Mougins on the French Riviera for £18.5 million.[78] The British newspaper The Guardian wrote that in 2009 Babiš, through a "convoluted offshore structure" "to hide ownership of the companies or property" and "secret loans", moved funds from the Czech Republic without taxation to buy real estate in France, including the Château Bigaud in Mougins.[79]
Petr Pavel (right):
> He was nominated by the Czech government as Chair of the NATO Military Committee in July 2014, and appointed to this position in Vilnius in September 2014.[7] He was the first chair of the organisation from a former Warsaw Pact member. His mandate commenced in 2015. At the end of his term of office in 2018, secretary general of NATO Jens Stoltenberg, to whom Pavel was an advisor, commended Pavel for leading the Military Committee with great distinction during a key period in NATO's history.[8]
>On 29 June 2022, Pavel announced his intention to run in the 2023 Czech presidential election. He said he wanted to win the election so that the Czech Republic would not have to feel embarrassed by its president.[17] Pavel launched his official campaign on 6 September 2022, saying he wanted to "return order and peace to the Czech Republic",[18] running on a pro-Western[19] anti-populist[20] platform. On 4 October 2022 he was one of three candidates endorsed by the centre-right Spolu electoral alliance
>He supports same-sex marriage and adoption rights for homosexual people,[28] and confirmed he would not veto a law permitting same-sex marriage.[23]