Cultural figures endorse anti-Zeman campaign

Prague, Jan 27 (CTK) - Milos Zeman, you are not and will never be my president, this is the message sent by tens of personalities of the Czech public life to leftist president-elect Zeman yesterday.

The petition was signed by artists, intellectuals and personalities from around former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

Former Social Democrat prime minister Zeman won the Saturday second round of the presidential election with 54.8 percent of the votes, having beaten Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

"Winning by means of lies and Communist StB secret service methods is a Pyrrhic victory," film director Monika Le Fay has told CTK.

She said the petition reacted to Zeman's negative election campaign and attacks against his rival, blasting him for this.

Experts say the campaign was very aggressive at the end. It focused on the postwar transfer of ethnic Germans from postwar Czechoslovakia and the family of Schwarzenberg.

The petition has been signed by various personalities such as Havel's former secretary Vladimir Hanzel, priest Ladislav Heryan, musician Roman Holy and Jaroslav Hutka, actors Jan Kaspar, Oldrich Navratil and Veronika Zilkova, film director Olga Sommerova, architect Borek Sipek, director of the Dox gallery Leos Valka and historian Petr Placak.

Le Fay said people were joining the newly established web page on social networks.