The Czech Republic is a parliamentary representative democracy, with the president acting as head of state and the prime minister acting as head of government.
The first president of the Czech Republic was Václav Havel. The current president, Petr Pavel, was sworn into office on 9 March 2023 - 2 January 2024Until 2012, the president was elected by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, for a term lasting five years. Since 2013 the president is elected by popular vote.
| Portrait | President | Took office | Left office | Party | Term | Previous office(s) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Václav Havel | 2 February 1993 | 2 February 2003 | Independent | bgcolor= | President of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic | |||
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| 2 | Václav Klaus | 7 March 2003 | 7 March 2013 | Civic Democratic Party (ODS) | bgcolor= | Prime Minister President of the Chamber of Deputies [1] | |||
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| 3 | Miloš Zeman | 8 March 2013 | 8 March 2023 | Party of Civic Rights (SPO) | bgcolor= | President of the Chamber of Deputies [2] Prime Minister | |||
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| 4 | Petr Pavel | 9 March 2023 | Incumbent | Independent | bgcolor= | Chief of the General Staff Chairman of the NATO Military Committee | |||
All four presidents of the Czech Republic, have shown proficiency in languages other than Czech. All presidents were so far fluent in English and Russian language. Václav Klaus was the president proficient in most languages.
Václav Havel spoke some English and used it repeatedly during his tenure as a President as he was reading several speeches in English.[3] Havel most notably used his English when he gave a speech to a Joint session of the United States Congress on 21 February 1990 which he started in English but after few sentences he continued in Czech and the speech was translated by Michael Žantovský, then spokesman of Občanské fórum.[4] Žantovský later jokingly claimed that Havel made his famous speech only to him and it was him, Žantovský, who actually spoke to US Congress.[5] Havel also knew Russian language which he learned at school.[6]
Václav Klaus is fluent in English, Russian, German and Italian languages.[6] He published number of publications in English and German languages. Kalus stated that his proficiency with foreign languages was helped by studies of International trade at Prague University of Economics and Businessas he was required to learn at least three foreign languages.[7]
Miloš Zeman is fluent in English, Russian and German. He used English and Russian during his tenure while talking to foreign politicians.[8] [9]
Petr Pavel in fluent in English, Russian and French.[6] Pavel reportedly knew English language well since his youth which helped his career in the army as only few people there knew the language.[10] Pavel learned French during an intelligence course in 1988-89.[11]