The Czech Republic will hold the first round of voting in the presidential election on the 13th and 14th. According to the latest poll by the research organization STEM, former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš temporarily has the upper hand.

(European News Agency)

[Central News Agency] The Czech Republic will hold the first round of voting in the presidential election this weekend. According to opinion polls, the current situation is 3 to 2. The 2 people with the highest votes will enter the second round of the runoff. The impact is worth watching.

The Czech Republic will hold the first round of voting in the presidential election on the 13th and 14th.

According to the latest poll by the research institute STEM, former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš temporarily has the upper hand with 27.9% support, followed by former general Petr Pavel and economics professor Danuša Nerudova In the latter, the support is 26.7% and 24.4%, respectively, far ahead of the remaining five candidates.

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Since there is no majority, this primary election has formed a situation where three people compete for two seats. The two people with the highest votes will compete for the presidential throne in the second round of run-off elections held on the 27th and 28th, replacing Ziman (Miloš) who has been president for 10 years. Zeman).

The 68-year-old Babis is the leader of the main opposition party "Action of Dissatisfied Citizens" (ANO), whose supporters are mainly middle-aged and elderly voters in the countryside; during his tenure as prime minister, prosecutors accused him of fraudulently receiving EU subsidies and suspected of corruption, He was acquitted by the court a few days ago, and the momentum is bullish.

Pavel, 61, was chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military council from 2015 to 2018, becoming the first former Eastern European communist general to lead NATO's top military decision-making body.

Nerudova is the only female candidate in this general election. The 43-year-old has served as a university president. If she wins the election, she will be the first female president in Czech history.

In the Czech Republic, real power is held by the prime minister, and the president is a symbolic head of state, but still has considerable influence in politics.

The current President Ziman is known for his pro-China, Russia and anti-American stance, and has been controversial in European political circles. Czech Radio (Czech Radio) news website iRozhlas asked the candidates "Is China a threat or a business opportunity?" to understand their views on China Attitude.

Babis said that the Czech Republic has a serious trade deficit with China and it is necessary to balance it out.

Pavel regards China as a security threat. He pointed out that China has the potential to become a center in the economy, technology and military, but its values ​​and strategic goals are different from those of the Czech Republic. It is necessary to be careful in developing bilateral relations.

He said that the Czech Republic and China do have opportunities to develop trade, but the trade volume is not large, and the potential is not so great that it is necessary to adjust the principles of foreign relations for this purpose, such as restricting cooperation with Taiwan.

Nerudova also believes that China is one of the biggest threats in the world. She pointed out that it is important to be careful when interacting with China. It is important to defend one's own rights, security and sovereignty, and the mistake of underestimating Russia in the past should not be repeated.