Brussels, 28/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 January, the presidents of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and of the European Perliament, Martin Schulz, congratulated Milos Zeman on his election as president of the Czech Republic, and they spoke of his Europeanism.
Barroso and Schulz said that the citizens of the Czech Republic had elected a person who, in his previous role as prime minister, had made a significant contribution to transforming his country and its ultimate membership of the EU.
Recalling the “strong European credentials” of the new Czech president, Schulz said he was “confident” that he will be “a president of dialogue and of reconciliation, under whose stewardship the Czech Republic will play an important role in our debate about the future of Europe”. In a message addressed to the new president, Barroso said that Zeman will contribute “positively and constructively to our joint effort to respond to the challenges faced by our union and our member states”. Barroso and Schulz both said that they look forward to their future cooperation with Zeman.
Only the leader of the S&D Group at the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, expressed a little more scepticism. On the social network Twitter he said that these elections “dealt more with the past than the future”. “But Zeman is far more European than (the former president, Vaclav) Klaus”, he conceded.
A former Social Democrat prime minister from 1998-2002, Zeman won the presidential elections, receiving 54.8% of the votes against the current minister of foreign affairs, the Conservative Karel Schwarzenberger (45.19%). The turnout rate was about 59%. Zeman, the third president since the independence of the country in 1993, is the first president to be elected by direct universal suffrage and not by the Parliament. Aged 68, this economist by training and social market economy supporter is also well known for his speeches which are sometimes deemed populist. He has for long been seen as the sworn enemy of the former president Klaus. (CG/transl.fl)