Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

François Hollande wins French presidential election

Nicolas Sarkozy concedes defeat to Socialist party candidate, who has become first left-wing president in almost 20 years


François Hollande supporters react in a concert hall in Villeurbanne to a projection
showing that the Socialist party candidate had won the French election. Photograph: Reuters

Angelique Chrisafis Paris Sunday 6 May 2012 14.31 EDT

François Hollande has won power in France, turning the tide on a rightwards and xenophobic lurch in European politics and vowing to transform Europe's handling of the economic crisis by fighting back against German-led austerity measures.

The 57-year-old rural MP and self-styled Mr Normal, a moderate social-democrat from the centre of the Socialist party, is France's first left-wing president in almost 20 years. Projections from early counts, released by French TV, put his score at 51.90%.

His emphatic victory is a boost to the left in a continent that has gradually swung right since the economic crisis broke four years ago.

Nicolas Sarkozy, defeated after one term in office, became the 11th European leader to be swept from power since the economic crisis in 2008. He conceded defeat at his headquarters in the Mutualité: "I will never be like those who have beat us," he said. "From the bottom of my heart I want France to succeed with the challenges it faces. It is something much greater than us; France. This evening we must think exclusively of France."

He thanked the French people for letting him lead for five years. "Never will I forget this honour. In the life of a man presiding the destiny of France, it is something I never will be able to forget."

The defeat of the most unpopular French president ever to run for re-election was not simply the result of the global financial crisis or eurozone debt turmoil. It was also down to the intense public dislike of the man seen as "President of the Rich" who had swept to victory in 2007 with a huge mandate to change France. The majority of French people felt he had failed to deliver his promises, and he was criticised for his ostentation display of wealth, favouring the rich and leaving behind him over 2.8 million unemployed. Political analysts said anti-Sarkozyism had become a cultural phenomenon in France.

Hollande is the first Socialist president to win a French election since François Mitterrand's re-election in 1988. Hours before the official announcement, hordes of cheering supporters began gathering at Paris's Place de la Bastille, a flashpoint of the 1789 French revolution, where the left had celebrated Mitterrand's first historic victory in 1981. The right has held the French presidency since Jacques Chirac's victory in 1995.

Hollande's first move as president will be to push Germany to renegotiate Europe's budget discipline pact to include a clause on growth. He has vowed to push growth measures to the centre of Brussels' handling of the eurozone crisis.

Ségolène Royal, Hollande's former partner who was defeated by Sarkozy in 2007, said France had voted for "change" and a new approach to European economic policy. Manuel Valls, tipped for a cabinet post, said Hollande now had to reconcile a France that had been divided during Sarkozy's term.

Hollande's victory comes after a brutal and vitriolic campaign marked by the high score of the far-right Front National's Marine Le Pen, who came third in the first round with 17.9% and 6.4m votes. Sarkozy, who had launched his campaign in February with a marked right-wing slant on the values of work, family and national identity, lurched even further to the extreme right as he courted Le Pen's voters in the past two weeks, stressing the far-right topics of immigration, borders and fear of Islam.

Hollande, who has vowed to begin his reforms as soon as he takes office on May 15, has accepted he will have "no state of grace" leading a country crippled by public debt and in economic crisis, with unemployment nudging a record 10%, a gaping trade-deficit, stuttering growth and declining industry. France's public debt is so high that interest repayments alone account for the second highest state expenditure after education. The rating agency Standards and Poors this year downgraded France's triple-A credit rating, citing in part its over-high state spending straining public finances. During the campaign, both Hollande and Sarkozy had promised to balance the books – France hasn't had a balanced budget for over 30-years.

Hollande's manifesto is based on scrapping Sarkozy's tax-breaks for the rich and putting up taxes for high earners to finance what he deems essential spending, including creating 60,000 posts in France's under-performing school system. He has pledged to keep the public deficit capped but for his delicate balancing-act to work, he needs a swift return to growth in France, despite economists warning of over-optimistic official growth forecasts that need to be trimmed.

Asked on Friday what he would do if he loses, Sarkozy said simply: "There will be a handover of power. The nation follows its course. The nation is stronger than the destiny of the men who serve it," he said.

The turn-out was high, estimated at around 80%.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/06/francois-hollande-wins-french-election

Now... the hard work begins .. wonder how much support he will have?.. .. very very close election ..I think it foretells our upcoming election ... . either way, President Obama ..OR..Mitt Romney .....(yikes).... ;(.......it will be a nail biter ..