Three lessons from the Czech presidential election

Milos Zeman won a second term as Czech President on 27 January, narrowly defeating opposition candidate Jirí Drahos. Jan Rovny writes that the country is now sharply divided between two political blocs that cut across old left-right allegiances, with identity politics playing an increasingly important role in shaping support. The presidential election also underlined that Czech politics is likely to take another step closer to Poland and Hungary, but with the key distinction that the country’s liberal opposition has shown an ability to unite against Zeman and garner almost 50% of the vote.