Final Word from Monday, June 25, 2012
Perhaps the most important comment so far of the 2013
presidential race was made last week by Miloš Zeman. He told
Právo that he expects it to be a battle of the Left and the Right
and that he considers Jan Fischer to be the ideal candidate of the
Right. Jiří Paroubek quickly seconded this, saying the next day on
Hyde Park that Fischer is a natural candidate of the Right and
that he (Paroubek) will support whomever of Jan Švejnar and
Zeman who makes it to the second round. Given this clever
strategy by Zeman to split the field, Fischer may yet regret not
seeking the official support of ČSSD, esp. if Švejnar doesn't run.
The Right will be more crowded than the Left, with Fischer, Karel
Schwarzenberg, Ladislav Jakl, Jana Bobošíková and now Vladimír
Dlouhý. By entering the race, Dlouhý might be helping Zeman,
but Zeman's strategy also helps Dlouhý by shifting the election
away from merely a Zeman-Fischer affair.[Czech Republic direct elections]
Glossary of difficult words
split field - an election slate in which a number of candidates cause the votes to be divided in such a way that there is not a clear favorite;
to second something - to express agreement with.