Prague, Nov 14 (CTK) – The national committee of the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) recommended to their voters that they should back former Czech Science Academy head Jiri Drahos in the January 2018 presidential race, party leader Pavel Belobradek told journalists on Tuesday.
“This is the candidate who suits our requirements and at the same time, he got perhaps most signatures for his petition,” Belobradek said.
“This was a strong mandate,” Belobradek said, answering the question of how strong the support by the party’s committee was.
In the summer, Belobradek and Petr Gazdik, head of the Mayors of Independents (STAN), wanted to call on the two parties to support Drahos’s bid.
Drahos said he highly esteemed the backing, but that he wanted to remain an independent candidate.
Nevertheless, STAN’s national committee supported Drahos’s candidature in July.
Christian Democrat deputy chairman Marian Jurecka said this May President Milos Zeman should not seek re-election on account of his behaviour and statements.
Zeman will compete with Drahos, lyricist and businessman Michal Horacek, former ambassador to France Pavel Fischer, Security and Defence Industry Association head Jiri Hynek, Kulhanek, musician, extra-parliamentary politician Petr Hannig, and physician and activist Marek Hilser.
