Pro-Western war hero sworn in as Czech President

PRAGUE: Retired General Petr Pavel, who was sworn in as the Czech Republic’s new president on Thursday, is a pro-Western drive war hero with a passion for motorcycles.

Pavel won the January presidential election by defeating billionaire former Prime Minister Andrei Babis in the runoff.

“When values ​​win, there are no winners and no losers. We are a community and we have to stick together,” Pavel said after the win.

True to his military past, the 61-year-old vowed to restore “order” in the EU and NATO member of 10.5 million people.

“I can’t ignore the increasing sense of chaos, disorder and insecurity people have here,” Pavel said on his campaign website.

“We have to change that. We have to play by the rules of the game, which apply equally to everyone.”

Ahead of the inauguration, Pavel proved to be an active president-elect.

He attended a security conference in Munich in February and traveled to Czech regions where he lost to Babis and met voters including the poverty-stricken Roma minority.

He also repeatedly spoke out in favor of Ukraine and Taiwan.

Although he rarely smiles in public, Pavel described himself as a “very happy person” in a recent interview with AFP.

“I just don’t show that on official occasions. But anyone who knows me will tell you that good jokes (and) everyday situations make me laugh too. I have no problem with that,” he said.

Communist “Mistake”

Pavel, born November 1, 1961, attended both a military high school and a military university in the former Czechoslovakia, then ruled by Moscow-backed communists.

He joined the Communist Party and began a rapid rise through the ranks of the army.

His critics accuse him of having trained as an intelligence agent for the communist army.

“I was born into a family where party membership was considered normal,” Pavel said on his website.

“I didn’t have enough information and experience to assess the criminal nature of the regime. Now I know it was a mistake.”

When communism collapsed in 1989, Pavel left the party but continued with the intelligence course.

An elite paratrooper, Pavel gained recognition when he helped liberate French soldiers from a Serbo-Croatian war zone in early 1993.

‘Grandpa’

After the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999, Pavel spent three years with the Alliance’s Regional Command in the Netherlands.

He later earned a Master’s degree in International Relations from King’s College, London before working as Chief of Staff in the Czech Army.

In 2015 he was appointed head of the NATO Military Committee and became its chief military official.

With a chest full of awards – including the US Legion of Merit and the French Croix de Guerre for bravery – Pavel retired from the army in 2018.

When the Covid pandemic broke out, Pavel founded the “Stronger Together” initiative to deal with various crises and help those in need.

Pavel’s wife Eva is also a soldier. He has two sons from a previous marriage and a stepdaughter, and describes himself as “grandpa enjoying his grandkids.”

Pavel enjoys travelling, skiing, photography and reading in his free time, but his real passion is motorcycling.

He once had a Suzuki off-road bike but switched to a dual-sport BMW.

“There won’t be too many opportunities (to ride) during the year, but I think I’ll find some,” he said after riding his BMW GS1250 to a motorcycle show in Prague last week.