The Czech president, Václav Klaus, has described the outcome of the first
round of direct elections for his successor as the greatest rout of the
country’s right since the fall of communism, after the candidate of the
biggest right-wing party the Civic Democrats, Přemysl Sobotka, received
only 2.5 percent of the vote. Mr. Klaus, who steps down in March, said he
was saddened by the result and felt that “it was necessary to do
something about it”. Former Social Democrat prime minister Miloš Zeman
and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who is chairman of the TOP 09
party and an acolyte of the late Václav Havel, will face one another in a
runoff beginning on January 25. Mr. Klaus places Mr. Schwarzenberg on the
left, despite the fact that his party are commonly considered to be
right-of-centre and have pushed through financial reforms and church
restitution, which are unpopular with left-wing voters. For his part, Mr.
Zeman says the runoff will be a left-right vote along the lines of the
Hollande-Sarkozy battle for the presidency in France last year. Mr. Klaus
refused to endorse either candidate.