Prague, Jan 18 (CTK) – Czech presidential candidate Jiri Drahos is tied with migration, which means the advertisements in Thursday’s press were right, President Milos Zeman, who seeks re-election and will face Drahos in the runoff later this month, said in an interview on TV Barrandov commercial station on Thursday.
The advertisements have been published by Zeman’s supporters.
Zeman said he is defending his supporters, because he is loyal to them.
The Friends of Milos Zeman association published an advertisement in some daily newspapers, which promotes Zeman and links Drahos, former Science Academy chairman, with migration.
Drahos reacted saying this is a part of a campaign that he expected. Zeman has nothing more to offer to the Czech Republic, but there are still things for his people to take. That is why they are kicking all around them, he told CTK.
Zeman, on his part, told Barrandov TV that “migration is a sensitive issue, and therefore the linking of Mr Drahos with migration is logical and rightful.”
He cited some of Drahos’s statements related to migrants.
Zeman and Drahos emerged the most successful of all nine contenders in the first round of the direct election last week and advanced to the runoff due on January 26-27.
Earlier on Thursday, Drahos said he expects further dirty tricks to be played against him within the final phase of the presidential campaign.
The controversial advertisement, published in the Denik and Pravo dailies on Thursday, reads “Stop Immigrants and Drahos. This Country Belongs to Us!” It calls on people to vote for Zeman.
Denik published also Drahos’s reaction to it on its front page: “I have expected exactly this type of lies and disinformation. This is just a slander. I only agree with the part saying ‘Stop Immigrants.’ None of us wants waves of immigrants here.”
On TV Barrandov, Zeman also commented on the recommendations PM Andrej Babis (ANO) addressed to him before the presidential election runoff.
Zeman said it is quite normal of him as president to seek good economic relations with China and Russia. The journalistic phrase saying that he is pulling the Czech Republic eastwards is absurd, he said.
After the first round vote on January 13 , Babis recommended that Zeman should unambiguously declare that he does not want the country’s orientation to the East and that he has been visiting China and Russia only in order to support Czech entrepreneurs.
As for Presidential Office head Vratislav Mynar and Zeman’s adviser Martin Nejedly, neither of them face prosecution, Zeman said, reacting to Babis’s recommendation that he get rid of the two.
“If I wanted to be ironical, but I have never been ironical in my life, I would say that neither of the two men face criminal prosecution. There is no reason for me to get rid of them,” Zeman said, probably indirectly alluding to the accusations Czech police levelled against Babis over a suspected EU subsidy fraud last year.
One should be loyal to his friends, Zeman said.
He said it would be boring if he and Babis agreed on everything.
He dismissed speculations about a power pact existing between him and Babis.
“No pact exists, we agree on some things and differ on others,” Zeman said.
He said he is ready, in accordance with his previous vow, to assign Babis, leader of the election-winning ANO, to form a government again, after his current minority government lost a vote of confidence in parliament this week.
Zeman wants to entrust Babis with the task on condition he secures support from a majority of lawmakers.
Zeman said if the Ukrainian female activist from the Femen movement, who unexpectedly approached him in a polling station during the first round of the presidential election, were sentenced to prison, he would consider granting pardon to her.
Her performance was “not so horrible but rather ridiculous,” Zeman said.
After the incident, the woman told a court that she wanted to warn Czechs against Zeman’s re-election.
