Czech leaders welcome Macron's victory in French election

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka welcomed Emmanuel Macron's comfortable victory in the French presidential election on Sunday.

Sobotka said he welcomed Macron's victory because he wanted France to play a proud and strong part of the European Union.

Sobotka said he considered Macron's victory a positive signal not only for France but for the whole EU including Czech Republic.

French voters rejected nationalism, populism and isolation of their country, said Sobotka.

Most French voters, he said, have preferred a president who will represent France as a modern and open country, a France as the proud state that laid the foundations of integration and is an important motor of the future continuation of European cooperation.

Centrist candidate Macron won Sunday's runoff vote of the French presidential election, defeating his far-right rival Marine Le Pen, according to polling agency projections issued after the vote.

An estimation by research firm Elabe for BFMTV show that Macron won the presidential race with 65.9 percent of votes, while Le Pen scored 34.1 percent.

Other estimations also indicate that Macron garnered between 65 to 66.1 percent of votes, and Le Pen between 33.9 to 35 percent.

The results will make the 39-year-old former minster of economy the eighth president of the French Fifth Republic, and the youngest one ever. Endit