Petr Pavel (born 1 November 1961) is a Czech politician and retired army general, currently serving as the fourth president of the Czech Republic, in office since March 2023. Prior to this, he served as Chair 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, joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1985, and then joined the Communist military intelligence in 1988. 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 34 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 office, Pavel appointed several justices to the Constitutional Court and has been actively traveling abroad. Following the 2025 parliamentary election, Pavel swore Andrej Babiš in as prime minister, but refused to appoint Filip Turek to the cabinet, triggering a wider political conflict with the Babiš government. In June 2026, he sued the government after Babiš chose to exclude him from the 2026 NATO summit in Ankara. Pavel has enjoyed high approval ratings throughout his presidency and has expressed willingness to run for a second term.
Early life (1961–1980) 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. During grammar school, Pavel was a member of Pioneer Organization of the Socialist Youth Union. Pavel then studied at Jan Žižka Military gymnasium in Opava in 1975-1979, where he became a member of Socialist Youth Union.
Military career (1980–2018) Recon paratroopers and military intelligence In 1979, Pavel started studies at the Military University of the Ground Forces in Vyškov. He became a professional soldier in the Czechoslovak Army in 1980 with rank of Sergeant First Class, and was 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. In 1988 he became the chair of a local branch of the Communist Party at the and remained a party member throughout the Velvet Revolution in November 1989.
In 1983, Pavel joined the paratroopers, serving as a leader of a reconnaissance platoon intended for operations deep behind enemy lines. Through subsequent promotions, he became a captain in charge of a paratrooper reconnaissance company in 1985.
In 1987, Pavel applied to join the , the Czechoslovak equivalent of the Soviet GRU. Pavel joined the elite 26th Department of the Intelligence Service of the General Staff (26. oddělení ZS GŠ), whose members were being trained for espionage abroad. Pavel remained subordinate to the Military Intelligence until 1999.
After the revolution, he completed studies at the 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.
United Nations Protection Force 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. The French Army was unable to evacuate the base because the local infrastructure and bridge had been destroyed, and the unit from the combined Czech and Slovak Battalion (last Czechoslovak military unit) was sent to conduct the evacuation as they were stationed only 30 kilometres from Karin Base. Pavel went to the base with 29 soldiers and two OT-64 SKOT armoured personnel carriers. During the two-hour journey, his unit faced various obstacles that slowed down the operation, including fallen trees which soldiers had to remove from the road while under mortar fire. When the unit reached Karin Base, two French soldiers were already dead and several others wounded. Eventually, 55 French soldiers were evacuated from the base in armed transporters.
Pavel was recognized and decorated by both the Czech Republic and France for his conduct of the rescue.
Senior management career After the operation in Bosnia, Pavel served in various positions in the Czech Army, including military intelligence and diplomacy. He represented the Czech Republic in several military diplomatic positions in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States.
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 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. During this time, he warned that Iraq might use weapons of mass destruction against invading forces.
Pavel was appointed brigadier general in 2002. From 2002 to 2007, he served as the commander of the specialized forces, the deputy commander of the joint forces and the deputy director of the section of the Ministry of Defence. 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. In 2011, he was a member of the expert commission that wrote the White Book on Defense, evaluating the state and proposing measures to improve the defense of the Czech Republic.
Pavel served as Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic from July 2011 to June 2012. On 1 June 2012, he was promoted to Chief of the General Staff. In this position, he organised cooperation between the army and academics and forums on defence and security issues.
Chair of the NATO Military Committee
Already a general of the army, Pavel was nominated by the Cabinet of Bohuslav Sobotka as Chair of the NATO Military Committee in July 2014, and elected to this position in Vilnius in September 2014, beating candidates from Italy and Greece. He was the first chair of the organisation from a former Warsaw Pact member. His mandate commenced in 2015. During his chairmanship, Pavel had to handle the Turkish invasion of Afrin and the growing influence of China. The Islamic State (ISIS) experienced both territorial gains and losses in Iraq and Syria, while NATO's involvement in Afghanistan continued. Pavel implemented the decisions taken at the 2014 Wales summit, including the Readiness Action Plan. He reestablished dialogue with Russia, disrupted after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, even though he considered Russia a major threat.
At the end of his term of office in 2018, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO to whom Pavel was an advisor, commended Pavel for leading the Military Committee with great distinction during a key period in NATO's history. He was awarded the Commander of the Legion of Merit for his work in the Military Committee.
Retirement from the army (2018–2022) Following his departure from the army in 2018, Pavel became a lecturer and consultant, and participated in the conferences of the Aspen Institute.
In 2019, Pavel co-founded the association 'Pro bezpečnou budoucnost' ("For a safe future"), together with diplomat Petr Kolář, entrepreneur František Vrabel, and manager Radek Hokovský.
On 6 April 2020, Pavel launched the 'Spolu silnější' (Stronger Together) initiative, with the aim of helping people linked with the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic, especially crowdfunding financial assistance for volunteers helping in hospitals and creating medical tools. The initiative also aimed to prepare the country for future crises.
Pavel gathered various experts in the initiative including head of the State Office for Nuclear Safety Dana Drábová, businessman Martin Hausenblas, president of the Czech Society of Emergency Medicine and Disaster Medicine Jana Šeblová, and former governor of the Olomouc Region Jan Březina. Pavel started travelling around Czech regions and gathering information about the fight against the epidemic from experts, authorities and institutions. Based on the initiative's findings, Pavel met Prime Minister Andrej Babiš to present him an anti-crisis plan created by the initiative.
Some political commentators such as Petr Holec and Ondřej Leinert linked the initiative to Pavel's potential presidential bid, noting similarities with Hillary Clinton's slogan during the 2016 United States presidential election.
2023 presidential campaign
In 2019, leaders of the Civic Democratic Party, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09, Mayors and Independents, and Czech Pirate Party met to discuss potential candidates for the next presidential election. Pavel was reported to be the most discussed candidate at the meeting.
On 29 June 2022, Pavel announced his intention to run in the 2023 Czech presidential election. He said he wanted to win the election so that the Czech Republic would not have to feel embarrassed by its president. Pavel launched his official campaign on 6 September 2022, saying he wanted to "return order and peace to the Czech Republic", running on a pro-Western, pro-European, and anti-populist platform, the views he advocated for throughout his senior military management career. On 4 October 2022, he was one of three candidates endorsed by the Spolu electoral alliance (the Civic Democratic Party, KDU-ČSL, and TOP 09).
During the campaign, Pavel referred to his membership in the Communist Party as a mistake, and his supporters pointed out that after the Velvet revolution, he had gained the trust of former dissidents such as Luboš Dobrovský and .