Zeman pushed out of race in first round
Over the last few days the former leader of the Social Democrats, Milos Zeman, held extensive negotiations with all the major players on the Czech political scene, and before the first round of voting in the presidential election on Friday morning it appeared he had some chance of winning. Dita Asiedu reports:
"The fact is that for this round, the coalition parties didn't even attempt to choose a joint candidate. The Social Democrats came with presidential candidate Mr Zeman and the junior coalition parties voted for Mrs Moserova. So the coalition parties didn't even try this time. Most political parties will agree to try a third election, after which we shall see. Perhaps in the third round, the coalition parties by learning from the mistakes from the previous two rounds would try to present a joint candidate."
But political commentators believe that finding a joint candidate will not be easy as Friday's defeat of Mr Zeman was clear proof of the Social Democratic Party being divided and of Prime Minister Spidla and his anti-Zeman supporters not being as weak as suspected. Communist Party Deputy Leader Miroslav Ransdorf agrees with this theory but furthermore claims that there is another player on the political scene - Social Democrat Deputy Leader and Interior Minister Stanislav Gross - whose personal ambitions were most responsible for his party's embarrassing defeat:
"It is proof of a total dissolution of the Social Democrats. The wing of Mr Gross has denied the support of Mr Zeman and this will have very heavy consequences in the congress of the Social Democrats. Mr Gross has preferred his own ambitions to the ambitions of the Social Democrats as a whole. The private ambition of Mr Gross is to become Prime Minister and the leader of the Social Democrats. Now, after the defeat of Mr Zeman and the discrediting of Mr Spidla, he has the space free for his own personal ambitions."