Election result a pro-euro triumph: Finnish press

(HELSINKI) - Finland's weekend presidential election, in which two pro-EU candidates advanced to a second round run-off, is a triumph for euro-friendly policies and for tolerance, media said Monday.

"The first round showed the position of the majority of Finns on the Europe question," an editorial in the Salon Seudun Sanomat, a regional daily, read.

Sauli Niinistoe, the conservative National Coalition favourite going into the poll, won 37.0 percent of Sunday's vote to Green League Pekka Haavisto's 18.8 percent.

Niinistoe, a 63-year-old career politician who was instrumental in leading Finland into the eurozone as finance minister from 1996-2003, will face Haavisto in a second round run-off on February 5.

At 53, the openly-gay Haavisto is also pro-European and has strong green credentials forged as environment and development minister.

"There is no doubt that Haavisto's qualification for the second round is some kind of backlash against parochialism," said Tampere-based regional daily Aamulehti.

"His open and natural manner in dealing with his relationship offered voters a channel to show their tolerance of sexual and other minorities," the daily added.

The electoral campaign was dominated by debate over triple-A rated Finland helping to foot the bill for bailing out Greece and other fragile eurozone economies.

Centre party eurosceptic Paavo Vaeyrynen dropped out of the race with 17.5 percent of the vote, while the anti-euro nationalist Timo Soini of the Finns Party garnered 9.4 percent of the ballot.

Finland's paper of reference Helsingin Sanomat meanwhile focused mainly on the deep loss suffered by the Social Democrats, who for the first time in three decades will not hold the presidency after their candidate Paavo Lipponen won just 6.7 percent of Sunday's vote.

The paper also said the low score obtained by populist, anti-immigration nationalist Soini was a "reminder of his mortality."