According to political scientists, the turnout was surprising, they favor Pavel for the 2nd round

Prague - The high turnout in the first round of the presidential election surprised political scientists interviewed by ČTK According to them, Petr Pavel, a former representative of the Czech army and NATO, has a better chance of winning in the second round

However, the head of the ANO movement and former prime minister Andrej Babiš can surprise in the campaign This follows from the statements of political scientists for ČTK

Although Pavel can attract a larger part of the voters of non-advancing candidates, according to political scientists, Babiš could, for example, use offensive rhetoric to discourage a part of the voters from going to the polls at all In the first round of the election of the new head of state, 68

24 percent of voters voted This was not the turnout in the last presidential elections in the first or second round

"It will be crucial if it can be overcome in the second round And I think that will decide," political scientist Ladislav Mrklas told ČTK

The high proportion of voters for Pavel and Babiš was also surprising, each of which received around 35 percent of the vote "Compared to the polls, the pair Babiš-Pavel broke away," said political scientist Josef Mlejnek

The third Danuše Nerudová, with a gain of about 14 percent of the votes, fell behind the mentioned two advancers According to political scientists, she may have been hurt by the scandal surrounding the titles at Mendel University, which she previously led, as well as a weaker performance in televised debates

"Nerudová's communication strategy in this regard (the case of titles) was quite bad Her staff may have thought for a moment that it would go away by itself," said Mlejnek

However, according to political scientist Jan Kubáček, Nerudová has a chance to enter politics in the future "If I were to speculate, I would not be at all surprised if, based on this result and experience, she decided to go into active politics, perhaps in some new social bloc, because the European elections are approaching and they always help and wish newcomers," he added

The recent verdict in the Čapí hnízdo case, where the court acquitted Babiš on Monday, may have contributed to Pavlov's advancement to the second round "Babiš began to be perceived as a greater danger than if he had gone to the second round as a convicted person," said Mlejnek

"It turned out that Danuše Nerudová apparently lost because a large part of undecided voters finally decided to vote for the one who had the best chances, to oppose Andrej Babiš," said the political scientist Miroslav Mareš According to political scientists, in the second round of the election on January 27 and 28, Pavel has a better chance of getting votes from unsuccessful candidates

"The question is whether all these voters will come and the second question is whether there is still another reservoir of votes for Babiš somewhere And maybe not even for those who voted for (SPD candidate) Jaroslav Bašta, but among those who did not come to vote

Because only in that case would Andrej Babiš have a chance to overturn the result," said Mrklas "It can be assumed that Petr Pavel has a chance to win the majority of the voters of Danuša Nerudová and Pavel Fischer and candidates in other places," says Mareš

According to him, Babiš does not have not even the votes of the Bašta voters "Part of the SPD voters are also critical of Babiš, so the question is where he (Babiš) can take," he added

According to Mareš, Babiš will not be an ideal candidate for anti-government voters due to his previous position at the head of the government during the coronavirus pandemic the campaign and debates before the second round will play a role

"If Babiš manages to smear Pavel and discourage voters from going to the polls and vote for Pavel, and at the same time (Babiš) mobilizes voters, then he has a chance," said Mlejnek "It is clear that Babiš will try to put Pavel under pressure in every discussion

He will try to go to the core in all these confrontations and somehow derail him from his stoic calm, which is proving to be one of his greatest assets And if it doesn't work, I can't imagine where Pavel should lose votes," said Mrklas

According to Kubáček, Pavel will have to present himself as a candidate not connected to the government "At that moment, Petr Pavel must move significantly to the position of an independent independent candidate, he must disconnect from the government of Petr Fiala, because he was closely connected with it," he said

"Now it will be more about how the candidates will work with the terrain, where they will go, how they will conduct a contact campaign and what topics they will bring into the debates It can be expected that there will be a lot of socio-economic topics, security topics," he added

Babiš will have a difficult position in the second round, according to the expert According to the political scientist of the National Institute of SYRI Stanislav Balík, Babiš will have a difficult position in the second round According to Balík, the low election result of Jaroslav Bašta (SPD) is a big surprise

Balík stated this on the website of the institute, which brings together scientists from Masaryk and Charles Universities and the Academy of Sciences Balík said that this year's presidential election has become the most important for voters, according to the high turnout

According to him, the high participation is due to two factors "Everyone knows that we have a president and projects something into him

Furthermore, the high turnout is basically recorded by a simple and understandable electoral system, where we choose one figure – not a party with different candidates, where we like one and ten others don't," he said Package "The high turnout was recorded by the relatively heated atmosphere of the fateful election, when in the eyes of many voters everything is at stake

On the other hand, of course, this does not mean that if some elections are considered the most important by voters, they really are the most important Parliamentary elections have and will always have a greater influence on the everyday life of citizens," said Balík, who was surprised by the low result of Jaroslav Bašta

The SPD candidate won less than 4 5 percent of the vote

According to him, this is a surprise both in the republic and in relation to the border districts For example, three percentage points more voters came to vote in Jesenice than in the 2021 parliamentary elections

At the same time, Bašta achieved only about half of the SPD's profit there in the 2021 elections so strange that half of SPD voters decided to vote differently, apparently for Andrej Babiš," pointed out Balík

Babiš, on the other hand, won almost half of all votes in Jesenice "It is obvious that he was able to concentrate the majority of the opposition votes already in the first round

It is an important moment for him, potentially dangerous for other opposition parties Nevertheless, he was not able to win in the first round

He will have a very difficult position in the second round," said Balík According to him, there is a parallel with the situation surrounding the election of Miloš Zeman

In the first round, Babiš received 30,000 votes and 3 5 percentage points less than Zeman five years ago, even with significantly higher voter turnout and being styled as the main opposition tribune

At the same time, the current president, after a massive mobilization of non-voters between the first and second rounds, won in the second round by less than one and a half percent "And he had more than half a million votes ahead of Jiří Drahoš in the first round," Balík reminded

Petr Pavel, on the other hand, according to the SYRI political scientist, was able to appeal to some of Miloš Zeman's voters from the previous presidential or opposition parties from the previous parliamentary elections "Still, he is far from won

He needs to convince his voters that nothing has been definitively decided yet, and the voters of the defeated candidates that he is a more acceptable option for them Neither of these is easy and self-evident," Balík added

president election political scientists Balík added president election political scientists Balík added

president election political scientists