Petr Pavel

Petr Pavel (Czech: [ˈpɛtr̩ ˈpavɛl]; born 1 November 1961) is a Czech politician and retired army general, currently serving as the fourth president of the Czech Republic since March 2023. Prior to this, he held the position of Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 2015 to 2018, and served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces between 2012 and 2015.

Born in Planá to a military family, Pavel enlisted right after graduating from military academy in 1983. He served in the Czechoslovak People's Army and joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1985. Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, and the subsequent dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Pavel served in the newly established Czech Army and participated in the 1993 evacuation of Karin Base during the Croatian War of Independence, which earned him praise and international recognition. Pavel rose through the ranks of the military to become the Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces from 2012 to 2015. He was subsequently selected as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee between 2015 and 2018, becoming the first military officer from the former Eastern Bloc to hold the post. At NATO, he oversaw the Alliance's response and fallout of the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and the 2018 Turkish invasion of Afrin, as well as efforts to tackle rising Chinese influence. Pavel retired from the military after 44 years and was discharged with honors after his term expired.

In 2021, Pavel announced his presidential bid in the 2023 election. He ran on a platform of closer cooperation with NATO allies, support for Ukraine and greater involvement in the European Union. He embraced a hawkish stance on Russia and China. Pavel won the first round of the election with 35 percent and went on to win the runoff against former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš with 58 percent of the vote, to become the fourth president of the Czech Republic and 12th president since the Czechoslovak declaration of independence in 1918. Pavel was inaugurated on 9 March 2023, succeeding Miloš Zeman. He is the second president with a military background (after Ludvík Svoboda) and the first without political experience.

In his first hundred days in office, Pavel appointed three judges to the Constitutional Court and made 11 international trips, including a visit to Kyiv and Dnipro, becoming the first foreign head of state to travel to Eastern Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.

Pavel was born on 1 November 1961 in Planá, then part of Czechoslovakia. His father was an intelligence officer who served at the Western Military District command in Tábor from 1973 to 1989. Pavel graduated from the Jan Žižka Military gymnasium in Opava. He continued his studies at the Military University of the Ground Forces in Vyškov, graduating in 1983 and subsequently joining the Czechoslovak Army as a paratrooper, serving as a platoon leader.

In 1985, after a two-year mandatory waiting period, Pavel joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, remaining a member until the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989. He later cooperated with dissidents such as Luboš Dobrovský and Radovan Procházka [cs] and referred to his membership in the Communist Party as a mistake, which he atoned for by serving the democratic cause.

In 1988, Pavel joined the military intelligence service and continued his studies at the Military Academy in Brno (later merged with the University of Defence) from 1988 to 1991. After the Velvet Revolution, he studied at Defense Intelligence College in Bethesda, Staff College in Camberley, Royal College of Defence Studies in London, and graduated from King's College London with a master's degree in international relations.

After graduating, Pavel worked in the Military Intelligence service of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak Armed Forces from 1991 until 1993.