Socialist Party candidate François Hollande was elected the next French president in last weekend's elections in a result that could have consequences for Europe as a whole, writes David Tresilian in Paris French voters went to the polls in the second round of the country's presidential elections on Sunday, narrowly electing Socialist Party challenger François Hollande as France's next president and defeating the centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, who was standing for a second five-year term. In what had been a widely expected result, Hollande won 51.68 per cent of the vote, a few points ahead of Sarkozy's 48.32 per cent. While Hollande did best in central and south-west France, Sarkozy's vote held up well in the south and east, though Hollande scored a convincing 55.6 per cent of the vote in the capital Paris. Following the announcement of the result at 8pm on Sunday night, Hollande supporters took to the streets of Paris and other French cities to celebrate the victory of the first left-wing president for more than 15 years and only the second Socialist Party candidate to be elected president during the fifth republic, the first being François Mitterand in 1981. In his acceptance speech, made during a night-time rally held in the place de la Bastille in Paris, Hollande said that he hoped to be judged on how far he delivered on two major promises: to restore "social justice" and to act on behalf of France's youth. There were many challenges ahead, he said, including restoring France's productivity, "reducing the deficit to bring the country's debt under control, and preserving our social model in order that everyone can have equal access to public services." In comments perhaps aimed at outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande said that "everyone will be treated the same in terms of rights and duties. No citizen of the republic will be pushed to one side or discriminated against. There have been too many divisions up to now, and these will be ended." Sarkozy had been widely criticised on the left for having acted as the "president of the rich" during his term in office and of adopting the rhetoric of the extreme-right Front National, which has targeted the policy of successive French governments on immigration and welfare. In his speech accepting defeat, Sarkozy told his supporters that "I bear the entire responsibility for the present defeat," seeming to indicate that he would now be retiring from politics and would not be leading the centre-right UMP party into the legislative elections in June. "After 10 years" in government, Sarkozy said, referring to his period as minister of the interior as well as his term as president, "my involvement in the life of my country will from now on be different�ê� I am ready to return to being just one French man among others." While president-elect Hollande will not formally take office until 15 May, there was speculation in the French media earlier this week about what his first actions would be and about whom on the right would emerge to replace Sarkozy. Hollande has consistently said that he intends to "bring change" to France by breaking with the economic policies of the previous government, ending the policy of austerity that has meant reductions in public expenditure and in the number of public-sector workers. Among promises made during the campaign, Hollande said that if elected he would hire a further 60,000 schoolteachers, putting them all on the public payroll, and would seek to institute an expansionary fiscal policy, even if this meant temporarily increasing France's budget deficit and possibly stoking inflation. Such policies, intended to stimulate the economy and promote employment, would go against German-led economic orthodoxy, which values price stability and the stability of the continent's common currency, the euro. Higher public expenditure and greater borrowing to finance it would push up France's already high public debt. Hollande could also ask the European Central Bank (ECB) to underwrite government borrowing in France and the rest of Europe by buying Eurobonds, easing the pressure on cash-strapped European governments but possibly leading to inflation and damaging the stability of the euro. Germany has consistently ruled out altering the mandate of the ECB to allow it to underwrite greater European government spending, fearing that this would lead to the racking up of further debt by already highly indebted Eurozone countries. Coverage in the French press earlier this week concentrated on the possibility of a showdown with France's partner Germany on economic policy and the future of the Eurozone, as well as on the character of the country's as yet almost unknown new president and the reasons for Sarkozy's defeat. Hollande has never held ministerial office in any government, being passed over by both Mitterand in the 1980s and former Socialist Party prime minister Lionel Jospin in the 1990s and apparently preferring to act behind the scenes in the Party hierarchy instead. Profiling the country's new president on Monday, the French newspaper Le Monde said that Hollande, impeccable credentials as a member of the country's ruling elite notwithstanding, had always been a "solitary" figure, not obviously related to any current of thought within the Socialist Party and being overlooked by rivals. As many writers have been pointing out this week, had it not been for Socialist Party favourite Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest in New York last year on sexual-harassment charges, Hollande would likely never have emerged as the Party's candidate for the presidency, that honour going instead to the better-connected Strauss-Kahn. In winning Sunday's election, Le Monde said in its editorial on Monday, Hollande had learned from Mitterand in 1981, conducting a "well-thought-out and balanced campaign that drew on the strong demand for change in society�ê� and the 'anti-Sarkozyism' that the outgoing president had managed to give rise to throughout his time in office�ê� as much as a result of his personality as of his policies." However, Hollande ought not to follow Mitterand in his "1981 policy of massive public spending to expand the economy, [since this] had led to a serious financial crisis and painful austerity. In order to negotiate with the rest of Europe, France needs rapidly to signal its intention to reduce its debt and its deficits," the paper said. Commentators have speculated on the reasons behind Sarkozy's defeat, only the second time that an incumbent French president has failed to win a second term under the fifth republic. It seems that it was Sarkozy's personality rather than his policies that had led to the desire for change. Sarkozy had been out of tune with the wider French public from the beginning of his presidency, some commentators said, running a "chaotic and lacklustre" re-election campaign, according to one writer in Le Monde, that had seen him fail to put across the achievements of his presidency and instead flirt with extreme-right ideas on security and immigration. Hollande's victory could be seen at least in part as the result of a desire to get rid of Sarkozy rather than as an endorsement of Hollande's ideas or of his suitability as president. UMP spokesmen said this week that the party's main priority in the wake of Sarkozy's defeat should be to remain united until the legislative elections in June. Since the gap between the candidates had been narrow despite the electorate's dislike of Sarkozy, "we have in no way been dealt an ideological defeat," the spokesmen said. Should the electorate vote for the centre-right in the legislative elections, despite having just elected a centre-left president, there could still be a UMP majority in the new parliament in June. This would lead to a period of "cohabitation" between a centre-right government and a centre-left president, effectively diluting Hollande's radical economic and social programme.
