When he is not serving as the President, he works as a professional photographer: Why the Czech Republic President is making headlines

Who is Petr Pavel?

He became the fourth president of the Czech Republic and the 12th president since the Czechoslovak declaration of independence in 1918.

Petr Pavel was born on 1 November 1961 in Plana, then part of Czechoslovakia. His father was an intelligence officer who served at the Western Military District command in Tabor from 1973 to 1989. During grammar school, Pavel was a member of the Pioneer Organisation of the Socialist Youth Union. He then studied at Jan Zizka Military gymnasium in Opava from 1975-1979 where he became a member of the Socialist Youth Union. In 1979, he began studies at the Military University of the Ground Forces in Vyskov. He became a professional soldier in the Czechoslovak army in 1980 with the rank of Sergeant First Class and was soon promoted to Second Lieutenant in 1982. In his graduate year of 1983, Pavel filed an application to join the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and he was admitted in 1985 after a two-year mandatory waiting period.After the Velvet Revolution, he completed studies at the Defence 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.Pavel served in the 1st Czechoslovak Battalion of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia. In January 1993, his unit was sent as part of the evacuation of Karin Base, a French military post under siege by Serbian troops. After the operation in Bosnia, he served in various positions in the Czech Army and represented the country in numerous military diplomatic positions in Belgium, the Netherlands and US. From 1993 to 1994, Pavel was the deputy military attaché of the Czech Republic in Belgium. From 1997 to 1999, he served as the commander of the 6th Special Brigade. From 1999 to 2002, he was the representative at the NATO headquarters in Brunssum. In 2003, he served as the National Military Representative at the United States Central Command at Operation Enduring Freedom headquarters in Tampa. During the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, he served as a liaison officer at the U.S. headquarters in Qatar. In the years 2007–2009, he was the military representative of the Czech Republic at the European Union in Brussels, and subsequently in the years 2010–2011 was the representative of the Czech Republic at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons. Pavel became major general in 2010 and lieutenant general in 2012. Pavel served as Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic from July 2011 to June 2012, when he was promoted to Chief of General Staff.He served as Chair of the NATO Military Committee from 2015 to 2018. In 2018, he retired from the military after 34 years and was discharged with honours after his term expired. In 2021, Pavel announced his presidential bid in the 2023 election. He became the fourth president of the Czech Republic and the 12th president since the Czechoslovak declaration of independence in 1918.