Prague, Jan 30 (CTK) – Former Social Democrat (CSSD) senator Zdenek Skromach, 60, plans his presidential candidature to follow the legacy of current Czech President Milos Zeman, 72, after he ends as head of state, daily Lidove noviny (LN) wrote on Monday.
However, Skromach’s strategy depends on one necessary condition: He will not run if Zeman decides to be defending his post in the 2018 presidential election and until he stays in office, LN says.
Zeman has repeatedly said he will announce his final decision in March.
Zeman, former CSSD chairman and PM who assumed the president’s office in March 2013, used to be “the most famous” pensioner in the Vysocina Bohemian-Moravian Highlands Region after he withdrew from high politics and he unsuccessfully contested presidency in 2003. However, ten years later, he returned to Prague triumphantly as the winner of the first direct presidential election in January 2013, LN writes.
Now, Skromach, one of the best known faces of the senior government CSSD, intends to “repeat Zeman’s story.” But instead of Vysocina, he lives in south Moravia and instead of “embracing trees,” which Zeman said he did in his retirement, he spends days in a little pool in the garden from which he is commenting politics on the Internet and releasing his “selfies,” LN adds.
Skromach does not conceal that he would like to base his candidature on being like Zeman.
“Everyone goes against Milos (Zeman), but I am running with him, on the contrary. I want to be prepared for the moment that Zeman is not the president any more,” Skromach told LN.
While other potential presidential candidates set themselves against Zeman and stress they will definitely be different, Skromach claims he wants to be exactly like him.
He does not underestimate the preparation for his candidature either. He has formed his team of aides with whom he focuses on election topics, LN writes.
Besides, he is seeking possible sponsors in the financial circles since a presidential election campaign will be costly. According to the paper’s sources, he has addressed some businesspeople asking them for a possible alliance, which he confirmed.
LN says Skromach is also striving for Zeman’s support as “a follower of his legacy.”
However, even if Zeman were elected for another five-year term, Skromach might not have to wait so long with his own candidacy since the length of Zeman’s work in office would strongly depend on his health condition, LN writes.
Most recently, Zeman and his faithful “epigone” Skromach met at an event characteristic for them, at a pig-slaughtering feast held by their common friend, former agriculture minister in Zeman’s government Jan Fencl, in south Moravia at the weekend, LN says.
Skromach, electrician by profession and former member of the pre-1989 Communist Party (KSC), spent the past 20 years in top politics.
He joined the CSSD in 1995 and two years later, he became its deputy chairman. He was MP (1996-2010) and senator (2010-2016) and he occupied the posts of the labour and social affairs minister (2002-2006) and deputy prime minister (2004-2006).
However, he did not defend his mandate in the October 2016 Senate elections being defeated by Alena Hubackova running for the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), LN writes.
