Prague, March 28 (CTK) – A number of wealthy sponsors are ready to support the presidential candidature of Jiri Drahos, former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences (AV CR), dailies Pravo and Lidove noviny (LN) write today, though he has not yet said whether he will really run.
Businessman and sponsor of science Libor Winkler has already conducted informal talks with Drahos, 68, to this effect, Pravo writes.
Winkler was one of the biggest sponsors of Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09), who was beaten by President Milos Zeman in the first direct presidential election in 2013.
“Drahos is a well-known man and his life career is naturally very close to me,” Winkler, director of the board of the financial group RSJ, has told Pravo.
He said he wanted to bide his time until the pool of candidates is finished and Drahos officially announces his candidature. This may happen by the end of this week, Pravo writes.
On Friday, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote that billionaire Dalibor Dedek, owner of the electronics producer Jablotron, might be one of the sponsors of Drahos.
He confirmed to the paper that he had conducted talks with Drahos and that he might financially support his campaign.
Dedek said Drahos had a chance of beating Zeman, although he is the favourite.
Winkler said Drahos was an acceptable candidate.
Like during Schwarzenberg’s campaign, sponsored by Winkler by several million crowns, he is ready to send the money from his own means, not money from RSJ, Pravo writes.
RSJ was founded by billionaire Karel Janecek in 1994.
Janecek also established the Anti-corruption Endowment in which Winkler also works.
All the three businesspeople are the main contributors to the Neuron foundation that supports Czech science and research.
If Drahos runs, he will pay his campaign from his own means. His advocate may send their contributions to his own account, Pravo.
Drahos is also backed by businessman Martin Wichterle from the Wikov engineering group. He is a grandson of Otto Wichterle, a Czech chemist who invented modern soft contact lenses.
“Yes, we have discussed a number of topics. One of them was the option of backing him,” Wichterle has told LN.
Political and academic circles are also speculating about Drahos’ support by some hi-tech firms such as Siemens or banks, LN writes.
Support to Drahos has been expressed by some Czech prominent scientists such as astronomer Jiri Grygar and Egyptologist Miroslav Barta. Both of them often comment on public affairs, it adds.
The financial paper Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes that support for Drahos cuts across many parties.
“Speaking on behalf of myself, I can say that I would certainly back such a personality as Drahos,” Petr Gazdik, leader of the Mayors and Independents (STAN), is quoted as saying.
Gazdik said some Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) were not opposed to Drahos either.
Some voices from the conservative opposition TOP 09 and ANO, a coalition government member, also have a positive attitude to Drahos’ possible candidature, HN writes.
($1 = 24.813 crowns)
