About this election
The Czech presidential election of January 2018 returned the incumbent, Miloš Zeman, to office for a second five-year term. In a closely fought run-off he defeated the independent challenger Jiří Drahoš by 51.4% to 48.6%, confirming the deep divide between Zeman's more rural, eastern and Eurosceptic base and the pro-Western, urban electorate that backed his opponent.
Since a 2012 constitutional change, the President of Czechia has been elected directly by the people rather than by parliament, for a five-year term renewable once. The election uses a two-round system: if no candidate wins an absolute majority in the first round, the top two advance to a run-off two weeks later. The presidency is largely ceremonial, but it carries real influence — appointing the prime minister and Constitutional Court judges, vetoing legislation and acting as a prominent voice in foreign policy — and Zeman had used the office assertively during his first term.
Zeman, a veteran of the Social Democrats turned populist, ran a low-key first-round campaign while leaning on his incumbency, his warmth toward Russia and China, and his hard line on migration. A crowded field of challengers competed to face him: the front-runner among them was Jiří Drahoš, a chemist and former head of the Academy of Sciences, who positioned himself as a dignified, pro-European alternative. Other contenders included the diplomat Pavel Fischer, the lyricist-entrepreneur Michal Horáček and the physician-activist Marek Hilšer.
In the first round Zeman led with 38.56%, ahead of Drahoš on 26.60%, with Fischer (10.23%), Horáček (9.18%) and Hilšer (8.83%) following and the former prime minister Mirek Topolánek managing only 4.30%. As most eliminated candidates endorsed Drahoš, the run-off was expected to be tight. Zeman prevailed 51.36% to 48.63%, a margin of about 152,000 votes, on a turnout of around 66.6% — winning strongly in Moravia and the industrial north-west while Drahoš dominated Prague, the larger cities and much of central Bohemia.
Zeman's second term was marked by his continued advocacy of closer ties with Moscow and Beijing, frequent clashes with the government and media, and growing concern over his health. He worked closely with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, and his sympathies toward Russia became starkly controversial after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which he condemned in a notable reversal. Barred from a third term, Zeman left office in March 2023, succeeded by Petr Pavel.
Zeman dominated the nine-candidate first round, finishing well clear of the field, but short of the majority needed to win outright. The fortnight between the rounds then became a single question: could the fragmented anti-Zeman vote consolidate behind Drahoš, a political newcomer? Most eliminated candidates endorsed the challenger, and the run-off duly narrowed to under three points — but the transfer was imperfect, and Zeman's core electorate, older, more rural and concentrated away from Prague, turned out with striking discipline. The pattern — a first-round plurality for the incumbent, a near-miss consolidation in the run-off — would repeat in mirror image in 2023, when the anti-establishment side was the one that failed to broaden.
The campaign was fought largely on Zeman's ground. He had made rejection of EU refugee quotas and warnings against Islam his signature themes since 2015, and framed the mild-mannered Drahoš as the candidate of an out-of-touch, pro-migration elite. Zeman skipped the early debates, appearing only for two final televised duels watched by millions, while his supporters' posters and a heavy online campaign — parts of it of murky origin, a running controversy of the race — hammered the migration theme. Drahoš campaigned on decency and Czechia's Western anchoring, and accused the incumbent's camp of importing disinformation techniques into Czech politics.
The office is formally limited, but Zeman had stretched its informal powers — in appointing governments, in foreign-policy gestures toward Moscow and Beijing — and 2018 was widely understood as a referendum on that expansive reading of the presidency. His re-election validated it for another five years, with consequences that played out in the protracted government formation alongside Andrej Babiš's ANO.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.