vacuum
7th May 2012, 02:48 PM
Should be interesting what these anti-austerity candidates will actually do.
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Nabila Ramdani: François Hollande will strike fear into the hearts of the rich
He has admitted that he 'does not like the rich' and declared: 'my real enemy is the world of finance'
Nabila Ramdani (http://www.independent.co.uk/search/simple.do?destinationSectionUniqueName=search&publicationName=ind&pageLength=5&startDay=1&startMonth=1&startYear=2010&useSectionFilter=true&useHideArticle=true&searchString=byline_text:%28%22Nabila%20Ramdani%22 %29&displaySearchString=Nabila%20Ramdani)
France will be waking up today to its first Socialist President for 17 years – and bracing for radical change. There are all kinds of reasons why one might fear a François Hollande presidency, especially if you are a prosperous French person.
The 57-year-old Socialist has openly admitted that he "does not like the rich" and declared that "my real enemy is the world of finance". This means taxing the wealthy by up to 75 per cent, curtailing the activities of Paris as a centre for financial dealing, and ploughing millions into creating more civil service jobs.
Add an explicit threat to renegotiate the euro pact to replace austerity with "growth-creating" spending, and you have one of the most vehemently left-wing programmes in recent history.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel – the woman at the centre of the Franco-German economic powerhouse which has dominated Europe – was at one stage even threatening to campaign for her conservative ally, Nicolas Sarkozy, against Mr Hollande.
Caution is justified, though one thing Mr Hollande will not repeat is the disastrous tax-and-spend policies introduced by France's last Socialist President, François Mitterrand, in 1981. He was soon forced into a humiliating U-turn, and into sharing power with the right as the Communists quit his cabinet in protest.
In contrast, Mr Hollande will focus on solving the euro crisis and reversing a Gallic economic decline widely blamed on a failed capitalist system, and particularly a rotten banking sector.
Just as pertinently, he will seek to heal divides caused by five years of the most unpopular head of state in post-war history.
Mr Sarkozy continually stigmatised perceived undesirables, from France's six-million-strong Muslim community to Roma Travellers, whom his administration regularly deported.
The diminutive conservative has claimed Mr Hollande is an incompetent "liar" who will "bankrupt France", but the caricature of an untrustworthy leftist is wide of the mark.
Mr Hollande is an Enarque – a product of ENA (L'École Nationale d'Administration) France's elite "rulers' academy".
He came seventh in his year, above former conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, and is by no means the grey, provincial local government apparatchik his detractors claim.
Mr Hollande styles himself as a "social democrat" and not as any kind of revolutionary.
"I want to initiate a change in society in the long term," is how he put it earlier this month, as he outlined a programme which was far more pragmatic than ideological.
Mr Hollande's commitment to equality is evident in his promise to introduce parity between men and women in his cabinet, and create a ministry of women's rights. Efforts will also be made to promote equal pay between the sexes. He will bring under-represented minorities into government, and work to make the Republic more egalitarian.
Managing France is a near-impossible task at the best of times, and the current warnings of economic chaos and social disorder are no worse than those levelled at Mr Sarkozy five years ago.
François Hollande is going to have an extremely rough time, but he should not be written off as easily as some would like
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/nabila-ramdani-franois-hollande-will-strike-fear-into-the-hearts-of-the-rich-7718666.html
Hollande takes French presidency
By Hugh Carnegy, Ben Hall and Scheherazade Daneshkhu in Paris and James Boxell in Tulle
http://im.media.ft.com/content/images/f24833ec-97bb-11e1-9b05-00144feabdc0.img©AFP (http://www.ft.com/servicestools/terms/afp)Socialist Party's Francois Hollande gives a speech after the results of the second round of the 2012 French presidential election
François Hollande grabbed victory in the French presidential election (http://www.ft.com/intl/indepth/french-presidential-parliamentary-elections-2012) on Sunday, defeating Nicolas Sarkozy, who became the latest victim of an anti-incumbent backlash that has felled leaders across the eurozone (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d41fa50c-96b8-11e1-847c-00144feabdc0.html).
The 57-year-old Socialist leader, whose cheering supporters flooded on to the streets around the Bastille monument in Paris to celebrate the first presidential win for the left since 1988, said his election signalled a hope for Europe that “austerity (http://www.ft.com/intl/indepth/austerity-in-europe) does not have to be inevitable”.
Speaking in his rural base in Tulle in southern France before flying back to join the Bastille crowd, Mr Hollande said his mission was to give Europe a dimension of growth and prosperity. “That is what I will say as soon as possible to our European partners and above all to Germany, in the name of friendship and responsibility.”
Mr Hollande has vowed not to ratify the EU’s new fiscal discipline treaty unless new growth-promoting measures are added, putting him on a potential collision course with Angela Merkel (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6bbae140-953a-11e1-8faf-00144feab49a.html), Germany’s chancellor. The two spoke on Sunday night when Ms Merkel called to congratulate him, a senior aide said.
Mr Hollande, who has never held ministerial office, won 51.62 per cent of the vote, versus 48.38 per cent for Mr Sarkozy - a closer margin than had been predicted over the past month and a shade less than the 51.8 per cent achieved in 1981 by François Mitterrand, when he beat Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1981, the last time a Socialist challenger unseated a centre-right president.
Mr Sarkozy, the eighth leader of a eurozone country to be replaced or swept from office in little over a year, quickly conceded defeat. “France has a new president of the republic. It is a democratic, republican choice,” he said.
He said he had called Mr Hollande to wish him good luck. “It will be difficult [for him] but I wish with all my heart that France will succeed in overcoming its challenges.”
Mr Sarkozy led France for a turbulent five years, energetically pushing through some overdue economic reforms but alienating many of his compatriots with what they saw as an impetuous and divisive approach to government. He is only the second French president of modern times to fail to win re-election.
Mr Hollande campaigned on promises of higher taxes on business and top earners, subsidies for companies taking on younger and older workers, a partial reversal of the rise in the retirement age to 62, and a balanced budget by 2017.
Striking a deal with Berlin (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/32aef398-97a9-11e1-9b05-00144feabdc0.html) over the new fiscal treaty will be one of many challenges in a tough first six weeks for the president-elect.
He must also name a prime minister, form his presidential staff, smooth down France’s allies at a Nato summit in Chicago over plans to withdraw French combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, and secure a majority in parliamentary elections on June 10 and 17.
Mr Hollande’s win ends a long and painful wait for the Socialist party which last saw a presidential victory in 1988 when François Mitterrand won a second term in office. It will also help to erase the bitter memories of 2002 when the centre-left was eliminated in first round by a resurgent far-right National Front.
Mr Sarkozy’s defeat, meanwhile, is likely to trigger bitter recriminations within the centre-right UMP party over his campaign strategy of courting far-right voters with an increasingly tough line on immigration and Europe.
Mr Hollande and Mr Sarkozy fought a long and occasionally bad-tempered campaign, which was marked by a resurgence of the far-left and far-right, which both espoused strongly eurosceptic, anti-market and anti-globalisation views. A first round score of 17.9 per cent by Marine Le Pen (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ef736c48-93ad-11e1-8c6f-00144feab49a.html), the National Front candidate, stunned the political class.
Turnout in Sunday’s run-off was 80.34 per cent - slightly higher than the 79.5 per cent during the first round vote on April 22, when Mr Hollande came top.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/32494270-9789-11e1-9b05-00144feabdc0.html
=============================================
Nabila Ramdani: François Hollande will strike fear into the hearts of the rich
He has admitted that he 'does not like the rich' and declared: 'my real enemy is the world of finance'
Nabila Ramdani (http://www.independent.co.uk/search/simple.do?destinationSectionUniqueName=search&publicationName=ind&pageLength=5&startDay=1&startMonth=1&startYear=2010&useSectionFilter=true&useHideArticle=true&searchString=byline_text:%28%22Nabila%20Ramdani%22 %29&displaySearchString=Nabila%20Ramdani)
France will be waking up today to its first Socialist President for 17 years – and bracing for radical change. There are all kinds of reasons why one might fear a François Hollande presidency, especially if you are a prosperous French person.
The 57-year-old Socialist has openly admitted that he "does not like the rich" and declared that "my real enemy is the world of finance". This means taxing the wealthy by up to 75 per cent, curtailing the activities of Paris as a centre for financial dealing, and ploughing millions into creating more civil service jobs.
Add an explicit threat to renegotiate the euro pact to replace austerity with "growth-creating" spending, and you have one of the most vehemently left-wing programmes in recent history.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel – the woman at the centre of the Franco-German economic powerhouse which has dominated Europe – was at one stage even threatening to campaign for her conservative ally, Nicolas Sarkozy, against Mr Hollande.
Caution is justified, though one thing Mr Hollande will not repeat is the disastrous tax-and-spend policies introduced by France's last Socialist President, François Mitterrand, in 1981. He was soon forced into a humiliating U-turn, and into sharing power with the right as the Communists quit his cabinet in protest.
In contrast, Mr Hollande will focus on solving the euro crisis and reversing a Gallic economic decline widely blamed on a failed capitalist system, and particularly a rotten banking sector.
Just as pertinently, he will seek to heal divides caused by five years of the most unpopular head of state in post-war history.
Mr Sarkozy continually stigmatised perceived undesirables, from France's six-million-strong Muslim community to Roma Travellers, whom his administration regularly deported.
The diminutive conservative has claimed Mr Hollande is an incompetent "liar" who will "bankrupt France", but the caricature of an untrustworthy leftist is wide of the mark.
Mr Hollande is an Enarque – a product of ENA (L'École Nationale d'Administration) France's elite "rulers' academy".
He came seventh in his year, above former conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, and is by no means the grey, provincial local government apparatchik his detractors claim.
Mr Hollande styles himself as a "social democrat" and not as any kind of revolutionary.
"I want to initiate a change in society in the long term," is how he put it earlier this month, as he outlined a programme which was far more pragmatic than ideological.
Mr Hollande's commitment to equality is evident in his promise to introduce parity between men and women in his cabinet, and create a ministry of women's rights. Efforts will also be made to promote equal pay between the sexes. He will bring under-represented minorities into government, and work to make the Republic more egalitarian.
Managing France is a near-impossible task at the best of times, and the current warnings of economic chaos and social disorder are no worse than those levelled at Mr Sarkozy five years ago.
François Hollande is going to have an extremely rough time, but he should not be written off as easily as some would like
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/nabila-ramdani-franois-hollande-will-strike-fear-into-the-hearts-of-the-rich-7718666.html
Hollande takes French presidency
By Hugh Carnegy, Ben Hall and Scheherazade Daneshkhu in Paris and James Boxell in Tulle
http://im.media.ft.com/content/images/f24833ec-97bb-11e1-9b05-00144feabdc0.img©AFP (http://www.ft.com/servicestools/terms/afp)Socialist Party's Francois Hollande gives a speech after the results of the second round of the 2012 French presidential election
François Hollande grabbed victory in the French presidential election (http://www.ft.com/intl/indepth/french-presidential-parliamentary-elections-2012) on Sunday, defeating Nicolas Sarkozy, who became the latest victim of an anti-incumbent backlash that has felled leaders across the eurozone (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d41fa50c-96b8-11e1-847c-00144feabdc0.html).
The 57-year-old Socialist leader, whose cheering supporters flooded on to the streets around the Bastille monument in Paris to celebrate the first presidential win for the left since 1988, said his election signalled a hope for Europe that “austerity (http://www.ft.com/intl/indepth/austerity-in-europe) does not have to be inevitable”.
Speaking in his rural base in Tulle in southern France before flying back to join the Bastille crowd, Mr Hollande said his mission was to give Europe a dimension of growth and prosperity. “That is what I will say as soon as possible to our European partners and above all to Germany, in the name of friendship and responsibility.”
Mr Hollande has vowed not to ratify the EU’s new fiscal discipline treaty unless new growth-promoting measures are added, putting him on a potential collision course with Angela Merkel (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6bbae140-953a-11e1-8faf-00144feab49a.html), Germany’s chancellor. The two spoke on Sunday night when Ms Merkel called to congratulate him, a senior aide said.
Mr Hollande, who has never held ministerial office, won 51.62 per cent of the vote, versus 48.38 per cent for Mr Sarkozy - a closer margin than had been predicted over the past month and a shade less than the 51.8 per cent achieved in 1981 by François Mitterrand, when he beat Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1981, the last time a Socialist challenger unseated a centre-right president.
Mr Sarkozy, the eighth leader of a eurozone country to be replaced or swept from office in little over a year, quickly conceded defeat. “France has a new president of the republic. It is a democratic, republican choice,” he said.
He said he had called Mr Hollande to wish him good luck. “It will be difficult [for him] but I wish with all my heart that France will succeed in overcoming its challenges.”
Mr Sarkozy led France for a turbulent five years, energetically pushing through some overdue economic reforms but alienating many of his compatriots with what they saw as an impetuous and divisive approach to government. He is only the second French president of modern times to fail to win re-election.
Mr Hollande campaigned on promises of higher taxes on business and top earners, subsidies for companies taking on younger and older workers, a partial reversal of the rise in the retirement age to 62, and a balanced budget by 2017.
Striking a deal with Berlin (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/32aef398-97a9-11e1-9b05-00144feabdc0.html) over the new fiscal treaty will be one of many challenges in a tough first six weeks for the president-elect.
He must also name a prime minister, form his presidential staff, smooth down France’s allies at a Nato summit in Chicago over plans to withdraw French combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, and secure a majority in parliamentary elections on June 10 and 17.
Mr Hollande’s win ends a long and painful wait for the Socialist party which last saw a presidential victory in 1988 when François Mitterrand won a second term in office. It will also help to erase the bitter memories of 2002 when the centre-left was eliminated in first round by a resurgent far-right National Front.
Mr Sarkozy’s defeat, meanwhile, is likely to trigger bitter recriminations within the centre-right UMP party over his campaign strategy of courting far-right voters with an increasingly tough line on immigration and Europe.
Mr Hollande and Mr Sarkozy fought a long and occasionally bad-tempered campaign, which was marked by a resurgence of the far-left and far-right, which both espoused strongly eurosceptic, anti-market and anti-globalisation views. A first round score of 17.9 per cent by Marine Le Pen (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ef736c48-93ad-11e1-8c6f-00144feab49a.html), the National Front candidate, stunned the political class.
Turnout in Sunday’s run-off was 80.34 per cent - slightly higher than the 79.5 per cent during the first round vote on April 22, when Mr Hollande came top.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/32494270-9789-11e1-9b05-00144feabdc0.html