Czech Republic: Rivals in Czech Presidential Runoff Support Warmer Ties With Europe - by Dan Bilefsky

An outspoken former prime minister and the current foreign minister will face each other in the Czech Republic’s presidential runoff in two weeks, according to the results of the first round of voting released Saturday.

The charismatic former prime minister, Milos Zeman, won 24.21 percent of the vote, giving him a narrow lead over Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, an ardent supporter of the European Union and the United States, who got 23.4 percent.

This is the first direct popular vote for a head of state in the Czech Republic. Czechoslovakia split in 1993 to create the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

The winner will succeed President Vaclav Klaus, a vociferous critic of the European Union who once compared the European bloc to a Communist state. He has dominated Czech politics for decades.

Both Mr. Zeman and Mr. Schwarzenberg are proponents of European integration, so the next president is expected to offer a decisive break with the outspoken anti-European statements of the Klaus era.

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