New head of state won his seat by pushing hard for so far neglected hot spot of Czech society – nationalism and frustration of lower income brackets. His opponent in the second round of the Czech first direct vote for the representative position, right-winged conservative and current foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg failed to escape pronunciation issues and his own misty TV-debate declaration on Beneš Decres, a controversial post-WWII legislation dealing with German population in border parts of the country.

Miloš Zeman called for negative campaign, stereotypically describing Schwarzenberg as a friend of Sudeten Germans who doubts safety of Czech estates in border and always left-voting parts of the state. Such call for action won Zeman the seat by half a million voters. Elected by majority of 54% voters, the former leftist prime minister will use his direct mandate to correct some missteps of the current highly unpopular right-wing government.

Miloš Zeman is a firm believer advocating for national interests and values which he embodies in talking as a pro-israeli neocon advocating bombing of Iran nuclear capabilities and defender who thinks that EU and Russia should associate in future fight against threat of radical political Islam.

Opposing his predecessor – europhobic Václav Klaus, the former social democrat admiring Scandinavian economic models calls himself a eurofederalist. His vision of European integration contains sovereign states sharing security and foreign policy, nevertheless fiscal and debt-related issues shall not be shared. As he is in favor of the Czech Republic adopting Euro in 2017, noisy opposition to fiscal rescue transfers to the southern member states is to be expected.

For the next five years, if his health keeps up massive smoking habits, Czech Republic will have a strongly activist president using strong rhetoric to offend his home and sometimes even international opponents. Zeman’s policies are expected to be EU fiscal issues, danger of radical Islam in Europe and pro-Russian trade orientation of the state.