PARIS (AP) — Socialist Francois Hollande defeated conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday to become France's next president, heralding a change in how Europe tackles its debt crisis and how France flexes its military and diplomatic muscle around the world.
Exuberant, diverse crowds filled the Place de la Bastille, the iconic plaza of the French Revolution, to fete Hollande's victory, waving French, European and labor union flags and climbing the column that rises at its center. Leftists are overjoyed to have one of their own in power for the first time since Socialist Francois Mitterrand was president from 1981 to 1995.
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| Outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy leaves after addressing supporters at his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party headquarters after the the preliminary results of the second round of the presidential elections were announced in Paris Sunday May 6, 2012. Socialist Francois Hollande defeated Sarkozy on Sunday to become France's next president, heralding a change in how Europe tackles its debt crisis and how France flexes its military and diplomatic muscle around the world. Sarkozy conceded defeat minutes after the polls closed, saying he had called Hollande to wish him "good luck" as the country's new leader. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) |
Segolene Royal, the Socialist who lost to Sarkozy in 2007, said she has a "feeling of profound joy to see millions and millions of French renew the tie to the left." Royal is Hollande's former partner and mother of his four children.
"The French can be confident," she said on France-2 television. "We will need everyone to help the country recover."
Hollande inherits an economy that's a driver of the European Union but is deep in debt. He wants more government stimulus, and more government spending in general, despite concerns in the markets that France needs to urgently trim its huge debt.
Sarkozy conceded defeat minutes after the polls closed, saying he had called Hollande to wish him "good luck" as the country's new leader.
Sarkozy, widely disliked for budget cuts and his handling of the economy during recent crises, said he did his best to win a second term, despite widespread anger at his handling of the economy.
"I bear responsibility ... for the defeat," he said. "I committed myself totally, fully, but I didn't succeed in convincing a majority of French. ... I didn't succeed in making the values we share win."
With two-thirds of the vote counted, official results showed Hollande with 51 percent of the vote compared with Sarkozy's 49 percent, the Interior Ministry said. The CSA, TNS-Sofres and Ipsos polling agencies all predicted a Hollande will as well.
Hollande's first challenge will be dealing with Germany: He wants to renegotiate a hard-won European treaty on budget cuts that Germany's Angela Merkel and Sarkozy had championed. He promises to make his first foreign trip to Berlin to work on a relationship that has been at the heart of Europe's post-war unity.
Hollande intends to modify one of Sarkozy's key reforms, over the retirement age, to allow some people to retire at 60 instead of 62. He also plans to increase spending in a range of sectors and wants to ease France off its dependence on nuclear energy. He favors legalizing euthanasia and gay marriage.
Sarkozy supporters call those proposals misguided.
"We're going to call France the new Greece," said Laetitia Barone, 19. "Hollande is now very dangerous."
Sarkozy had said he would quit politics if he lost, but was vague about his plans Sunday night.
"You can count on me to defend these ideas, convictions," he said, "but my place cannot be the same."
His political allies turned their attention to parliamentary elections next month.
Source: The Associated Press
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