The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, hailed the “firm commitment to our European values” of Petr Pavl, who won the presidential election in the Czech Republic on Saturday, Agerpres reports.

“Your experience in the field of security, defense and foreign relations will be valuable to support and strengthen the unity of Europe in support of Ukraine,” Ursula von der Leyen added.

• The former chairman of the NATO Military Committee and a supporter of military support for Ukraine, Petr Pavel, won the Czech presidential election on Saturday with 58.32% of the vote. His opponent, Andrii Babish, won 41.67% of the votes after the ballots were fully counted.

• Petro Pavel has promised that he will be an independent president who will not be influenced by party politics, that he will continue to support aid to war-torn Ukraine, and that he will support Kyiv’s bid for EU membership.

For his part, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier emphasized that “the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine shows more than ever the importance of cohesion within the framework of the EU and NATO.”

Congratulatory messages from the leaders of Slovakia and the Baltic countries arrived quickly.

Although the role of the president is more honorary in the Czech Republic, the head of state appoints the government, chooses the head of the Central Bank and judges of the Constitutional Court, and provides supreme command of the armed forces.

• Peter Pavel is a hero of the war in the former Yugoslavia, during which he also helped free some French soldiers. He later became the Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Republic and served as the President of the NATO Military Committee from 2015 to 2018, thus becoming the most senior military officer of the North Atlantic Alliance.
• Pawel will become the fourth president of the Czech Republic since it became an independent state following a peaceful split with Slovakia in 1993, four years after Czechoslovakia abandoned a totalitarian communist regime, leaving Moscow’s orbit.
• Petr Pavl’s predecessors were Vaclav Yavel, a dissident anti-communist playwright who led the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003, economist Vaclav Klaus (2003-2013) and Milos Zeman, whose term ends in March.

Klaus Iohannis, I congratulate the new president of the Czech Republic

President Klaus Iohannis also sent his congratulations to the new president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, on Saturday, speaking in favor of strengthening relations between the two states.

“I congratulate the newly elected President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel. I look forward to working together to strengthen bilateral relations and close coordination within the framework of the EU and NATO,” Iohannis wrote on Twitter.

The message was also sent by Nicolae Ciucă

Prime Minister Nikolae Chuke, in turn, sent his congratulations to the new president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, calling his pro-European and pro-Western beliefs strong arguments for strengthening relations between the two states.

“I sincerely congratulate Peter Pavel on his election as the President of the Czech Republic! His pro-European and pro-Western convictions are strong arguments for strengthening relations between Romania and the Czech Republic and for our cooperation in the EU and NATO,” Čuke wrote on Twitter.