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Under the mandate of the UN, the French forces are acting with the logistical support of the British to support Malian troops against the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, fighting for independence for the provinces of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal, and against the Salafists under Ansar Dine, who are fighting to establish an Islamic regime in this part of Mali.

“François Hollande can be happy to have stopped the Taliban of the sands,” writes *Libération*, [which nevertheless wonders](http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/01/13/gendarme_873766) where Operation Serval is headed –

Faced with the rise of the Islamists, French President François Hollande has “chosen the lesser evil,” [writes *Le Monde*](http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2013/01/14/serval-ou-le-choix-du-moindre-mal_1816600_3232.html).

By intervening in Mali, “François Hollande has taken a risk,” writes *Süddeutsche Zeitung*, adding it's a risk he must not be left to take alone.

“The problem with the French intervention is that it is French,” [says *Tageszeitung*](http://www.taz.de/Kommentar-Mali-und-Frankreich/!108906). The alternative daily from Berlin deplores a “colonialism of the left” and notes that –

Furthermore, warns *The Independent*, intervening in Mali may “fuel radical Islamists' narrative of yet another… assault on Islam.” For columnist Owen Jones –

In Bucarest, [*Adevărul* is worried about](http://adevarul.ro/international/europa/europa-noua-ofensiva-terorismului-1_50f2af2156a0a6567e78bc9a/index.html#) “the major consequences for a vast swathe of Africa” of Operation Serval, and about “the security of the EU and its citizens, inside or outside the community space.” Despite this, the paper notes, “the intervention was necessary due to the unprecedented increase in the number of Islamic cells […] both north and south of the Sahara.” It adds, however –

“The question now is whether and how the EU will mobilise,” [adds *European Voice*](http://www.europeanvoice.com/page/3607.aspx?LG=1&&blogitemid=1634). The Brussels-based weekly inquires about the state of European defence and asks

“Zeman versus the Prince,” headlines Respekt. Prince Karel Schwarzenberg scored a surprise result in the first round of the Czech presidential election on January 11 and 12, when he came in second, with 23.4 per cent of the vote, just 0.81 per cent behind Miloš Zeman who led the field. For the weekly, the second round scheduled for January 25 and 26 will be “very exciting, because it offers a choice between two very different paths.” While Zeman, the former leader of the Social Democratic represents the “people”, the “nobility” of the Schwarzenberg conservative has found support in large towns.

Initially viewed as an outsider, Karel Schwarzenberg, the current minister of foreign affairs and leader of the TOP 09 (conservative party), succeeded in mobilising a large section of the electorate in the final days of the campaign. Respekt attributes the surge in support for the second placed candidate “to his charisma, a very successful campaign, and a personal history that no Czech politician has been able to match since Václav Havel.”

Born into a large aristocratic family, Schwarzenberg was forced to flee Czechoslovakia when the communists took power in 1948. He later returned to the country several times to provide support for dissidents during the communist era. Following 1989, President Václav Havel appointed him as his Chancellor. Thereafter, he served as a senator and as minister of foreign affairs for the 2007-2009 government as well as the one that is currently in office.

The 2.5m Czechs who voted in the first round (a turnout of approximately 60 per cent) “have given a chance to representatives of a generation that has defined the face of the country since the 1990s.” Hospodářské noviny adds —

Who symbolises change? Who is the man of the past, and the man of the present? The 75-year-old minister of foreign affairs, or the 68-year-old former prime minister? With all due respect, the discussion could raise a few smiles. But there is a good reason for their selection. The Czechs who have expressed their disgust for politics in the polls have shown that they are not swayed by terms like “change” and “new departure”, rather they are backing certainty and traditional brands.”

On January 12, the Serbian parliament approved a government resolution (by 175 votes to 19) that will provide the basis for future talks with Pristina. The text confirms that Belgrade will settle for substantial autonomy for Serbian areas in northern Kosovo, on condition that the international community waives its demand for the Serbian government to formally recognise the independent state in what was previously a Serbian province. Blic notes that formal recognition of the Republic of Kosovo would amount to the de facto abandonment of Serbian ambitions to divide or annex the country.

In the first round of presidential elections, former Prime Minister Miloš Zeman and the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Karel Schwarzenberg, lead the field, respectively polling 24.2 per cent and 23.4 per cent of the vote. The second round is set to take place on January 25-26. In the wake of Václav Klaus and Václav Havel, the Czechs have voted for “two strong candidates”, notes the daily.

Some 350,000 (according to police) and 800,000 (according to organisers) opponents of a bill to extend marriage and adoption rights to homosexual couples took part in a Paris demonstration to demand that the text be withdrawn. Organised by Catholic associations and backed by part of France’s conservative opposition, it was one of the largest protests in to take place in France in the last 30 years. The government has insisted that the bill will not be withdrawn.

On the third day of its intervention, the French army has conducted multiple bombing raids in the north and the centre of the country. The strikes have targeted bases used by Islamic groups which took over northern Mali in the wake of the coup which overthrew the country’s central government last March.

The Polish parliament (Sejm) will next week debate three draft bills giving civil partnership rights to homosexuals couples. All three proposals, two of them presented by the Left Democratic Alliance and Palikot’s Movement and one by the ruling Civic Platform, do not grant gay couples in civil partnerships the same rights as married couples, and “there is no majority yet in the Sejm to pass any of the projects,” stresses the daily.