The eastern European countries that were once invaded and held captive by Russia seem to be the countries that recognize that the Muslim “refugees” are actually invaders.
The flip side is, there are also segments of the rural population motivated by communist nostalgia and Milos Zeman is indeed a former communist. Of course, under the USSR there were no migrants among other things...but even before the refugee crisis, nostalgia was starting to take root.
I see tendency on these boards, like with liberal global media —> to equate American political landscape to Europe’s. Not every anti-migrant that uses saucy language is necessarily a Donald Trump, nor is the party system the same in these places.
Also, sometimes so-called “centrists” end up being surprising reformers, like Emmanuel Macron of France ,who Trump has invited to be the guest at the first official White House dinner he’s hosted.
(Marine Le Pen would have been a disaster by the way. She couldn’t hold her own party together. She was too secular meaning: not just anti-Islam, but not pro-Life either. Her niece on the other hand, was a genuine Catholic, talented, but too young and taking a break from politics. Her and her aunt did not always get along either.)
My point is just because someone comes out swinging as a “far right” person doesn’t mean they are indeed “right.”
Also for all the anti-Islam talk, anti-Semitism often accompanies the platforms of certain “Far Right” European parties. (And that was the case for Le Pen’s party France: it has a genuine legacy of Holocaust denialism.)
Czech press Milos Zeman though is pro-Israel and wants to support Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.