French press: Election shows move away for Euroscepticism

Both candidates advancing to the second round of the Czech presidential polls are pro-European politicians, French and Belgian dailies emphasise in the wake of the first election round yesterday.

Paris/Brussels, Jan 14 (CTK) - Both candidates advancing to the second round of the Czech presidential polls are pro-European politicians, French and Belgian dailies emphasise in the wake of the first election round yesterday.

Irrespective of the January 25-26 second round's result, the Czechs are abandoning the Eurosceptic policy outgoing President Vaclav Klaus has pursued in the past ten years, writes the server of the French economic daily Les Echos.

The server of the political weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, too, emphasises that European integration enjoys support of both advancing candidates, former socialist PM Milos Zeman and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (conservative TOP 09).

Le Nouvel Observateur's commentary says the election result is very uncertain, but some 8.4 million Czech voters have already closed the chapter of Klaus's Euroscepticism.

On LesEchos.fr, the commentator describes Zeman "a Euro-federalist" and an advocate of firmer EU structures including the joint economic policy.

Schwarzenberg, for his part, calls for "Europe based on solidarity" and for a higher unity of all 27 EU members, the commentator writes.

The French news server Direct.Matin.fr assesses Zeman and Schwarzenberg as representatives of the pro-European left and pro-European right, respectively, as does the daily Le Figaro on its website.

The outgoing Klaus is a very Eurosceptic right-wing president, Le Figaro writes.

The francophone dailies in Belgium, too, emphasise the future Czech president's pro-European orientation.

"The Czech pro-European vote," reads the headline of a commentary in Le Soir daily.

"Two pro-Europeans advance to the decisive round of election," writes La Libre Belgique.