Czech President Milos Zeman has secured a second term in office after he defeated the pro-EU academic, Jiri Drahos in the country’s presidential election.
The result is seen as a tacit endorsement Zeman's tough stance against immigration and his courtship of Russia and China.
With 99.35% of districts reporting, Zeman won 51.55% of the vote to 48.44% for Drahos, who conceded the election before all ballots were counted.
President Zeman, 73, is the last prominent figure among active politicians from the country's post-communist transitional period in the 1990s.
He has pleased some but alienated others by publicly belittling opponents ranging from the last prime minister to intellectual elites and the press.
Mr Zeman has taken a tough stance on immigration and was one of the few European politicians to back Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election.
He has also caused disquiet through his warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and calls to end European Union sanctions against Moscow imposed over its annexation of Crimea.
Mr Zeman has also been lukewarm toward the EU, calling himself a federalist and saying he supports membership in the bloc while also favoring holding an in-or-out referendum, like the one that has led to Britain's impending exit.
The two presidential candidates were as dissimilar personally as they are politically. Zeman is brash, with a self-advertised appetite for alcohol and tobacco. His health is a concern - he suffers from diabetes, which makes him walk with a cane. Drahos is a soft-spoken chemistry professor.
"We did not win, but we didn't lose either. I am terribly happy for this huge wave of energy," Drahos told his supporters."I am convinced this energy will not disappear, that it wills tay."
The Czech constitution gives presidents limited executive powers, but President Zeman has not hesitated to test the boundaries.
In 2013, he appointed a caretaker government of his allies for five months against the will of parliament.
He has benefited from rising Czech hostility to immigration, especially from Muslim countries, although the country received just 116 asylum applications between January and November last year.
Both Mr Zeman and Mr Drahos have rejected the EU's refugee quotas, but Mr Drahos has said his country should differentiate between economic migrants and war refugees and follow its asylum procedures.
