Free Republic

Europe’s populist movement was given a shot in the arm on Saturday when Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, running primarily on an anti-migration platform, fended off a challenge from political neophyte Jiri Drahos. Zeman won 51.4 percent of the vote from the two-day runoff while Drahos won 48.6 percent. Czech Radio reports that Drahos won in most of the main cities, while Zeman scored big with smaller towns and the countryside, with analysts saying Zeman’s “common touch” made the difference. Zeman, a former left-wing prime minister who ascended to the presidency in 2013, had been widely criticized for what critics...

Zeman joined the Communist Party during the 1968 Prague Spring reforms. The short-lived period of greater freedom was brutally crushed by a Soviet invasion. Two years later he was purged from the party. Zeman joined the left-leaning Social Democratic party after communism fell, taking its helm in 1993. Five years later, he formed a minority government largely responsible for talks in the run-up to Czech EU accession in 2004. His failed attempt to replace Havel as president in 2003 -- in a vote won by Klaus -- led him to reconsider his priorities and retreat to a countryside house far...

Czech President Milos Zeman on Saturday accused EU states of being "cowards" in their response to his U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "The European Union, cowards, are doing all they can so a pro-Palestinian terrorist movement can have supremacy over a pro-Israeli movement," said Zeman, according to AFP. The 73-year-old Zeman, targeting a second term from January and who had Friday said he was happy at Trump's controversial move, made Saturday's comment before delegates attending the congress of the far right Freedom and Direct Democracy party, which opposes immigration and the EU. Zeman added that...

Czech President Milos Zeman hinted on Thursday that his country could follow the United States and move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “sooner or later”. “[President] Trump’s decision makes me happy because when I visited Israel four years ago, I said that I would like to transfer the embassy, and that if that happens, we will be the first to do so,” said the Czech president in a television interview. He added that “every country has the right to decide which city will serve as its capital, and by the same token, every country has the right to...

Full title: Czech President Declares During Interview ‘Muslims Will Never Integrate And We In The East Will Never Accept Them- They Are Part Of A Muslim Brotherhood Plot To Invade And Take Over Europe’ The experience of western European countries which have ghettos and excluded localities shows that the integration of the Muslim community is practically impossible,” Zeman said in a televised interview. “Let them have their culture in their countries and not take it to Europe, otherwise it will end up like Cologne,” he added, referring to the mass New Year’s Eve assaults on women in Germany and elsewhere....

Czech President Milos Zeman has said the US ambassador is not welcome at his Prague Castle residence, reports say. The apparent snub follows remarks by US envoy Andrew Schapiro seen as critical of the president's decision to attend forthcoming World War Two commemorations in Moscow. Several world leaders are boycotting the ceremony over Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict. Mr Zeman is considered more sympathetic to Russia on the issue. The US embassy has declined to address Mr Zeman's comments.

Milos Zeman, president of the Czech Republic, has branded American beer as “filthy water” during a business summit in Kazakhstan but US brewers needn’t pay too much attention. During the trip, Kazakhstan’s long-running president, Nursultan Nazarbaev (who has run the country since 1989), asked Zeman (pictured above) which beer he thought was the best in the world. According to Reuters Zeman replied that, “Czech beer is the best in the world. No American company that offers filthy water instead of beer can compete with us.” Zeman is used to controversial and often profane statements, the 70-year-old even calling Russian protest...

Many world leaders have said they wouldn't miss Nelson Mandela's funeral for anything, but Czech Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok isn't among them. Rusnok's conversation with Defense Minister Vlastimil Picek in parliament on Friday was broadcast by the Czech public television news channel. When Picek reminded him that President Milos Zeman might be unable to fly because of a knee injury, Rusnok reacted with a vulgar term. Addressing his companion by the Czech equivalent of "dude," Rusnok said: "I'm dreading that I will have to go."

An artist has sent an unusual, but very clear message to the Czech Republic president ahead of parliamentary elections. Sculptor David Cerny created a giant purple hand -- extending an oversized middle finger -- and placed it on a pontoon boat on Prague’s main Vltava river Monday. The giant gesture floated near the famous Charles Bridge, visible from Prague Castle, where Czech President Milos Zeman would have a perfect view. Cerny -- who is locally known for his anti-communist stance -- designed the stunt before this week’s parliamentary elections, which could give the communists a taste of power almost a...

As parliamentary polls get under way in the Czech Republic this week, artist David Cerny has floated a huge purple statue of an extended middle finger down the River Vltava in Prague. The outsized purple hand has been mounted on a barge floating on the river. It is pointed at Prague Castle, the seat of President Milos Zeman. Mr Cerny has shocked and mocked politicians and public figures in the past, says the BBC's Rob Cameron. This latest piece is clearly his message to the leftist President Zeman and the political party recently set up by his supporters, our correspondent...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Suspected terrorist Mohammed Atta contacted an Iraqi agent with plans to blow up the Radio Free Europe building in Prague just before the terrorist attacks in the United States, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman told CNN. Zeman said Friday that Atta had met twice with the Iraqi agent, a diplomat, in the days before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The diplomat, Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Ani, was expelled from the country two weeks after the meeting. ``At first, Atta contacted some Iraq agent not to prepare the terroristic attack on'' the ...