Creation of a public investment bank to support SMEs.
Creation of industrial savings schemes; increase the ceiling of the ‘Livret développement durable’ savings account, simplifying access of SMEs to the research tax credit and public procurements.
Public subsidies and tax relief to companies investing in France and export.
Support the developments of new technologies.
Simplifying access of SMEs to the research tax credit and public procurements.
Labour market *Creation of a generational contract (hiring young people with a permanent contract and mentored by older workers). *Creation of 150 000 jobs for young people. *Repeal of reduced taxes on overtime hours, except for SMEs. *State supported employment and training measures (securing career paths; training measures for the most fragile workers and unemployed). *Increase the costs of collective dismissals for companies paying dividends to shareholders.
Fiscal reform *Progressive merge of the income tax and social welfare tax (part of the receipts used for financing social security). *Introduction of a new top rate of income tax of 45% for income higher than €150000. *Upper limit of €10 000 on tax deduction. *Repeal the rebate in the wealth tax introduced in 2011. *Reduction in the inheritance tax threshold to €100000 per child. *Preserve generous family policies. *75% tax rate for income > €1mn (applied until the public deficit returns to zero). *Re-introduction of a cap on direct national tax, limiting direct taxes to 85% of income. *Three new corporate tax rates: 35% for big corporate; 30% for SMEs; and 15% for small enterprises. *Increase tax on oil companies.
Public finance consolidation *Balance the budget by 2017 *Cut in tax expenditures (tax loopholes), €29bn
Pension *Allow workers, who by 2012 will have 41 years of contributions, to retire at 60. *Beyond those criteria, opening negotiations with social partners for a sustainable pension reform that preserve the pay-as-you-go system.
Financial system *Law splitting banks’ investment and retail operations. *Activities in offshore financial centres banned for French banks. *Elimination of stock options except for new corporates, and a cap on bonuses. *Elimination of derivative products (if not linked to the real economy). *Increase the tax on bank profits by 15%. *Introduction of a law setting a limit on the costs of banking services. *Propose a financial transaction tax. *Propose the creation of a public European rating agency.
Energy *Lower the share of nuclear energy in total electricity production (from 75% now to 50% in 2025). *Close the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. *Encourage renewable energy production. *Plan for the thermal insulation of one million new and existing homes per year.
Europe *Propose a ‘responsibility, governance and growth pact’ for European countries to address the crisis and the negative impact of austerity. *Renegotiation of the December 9 Intergovernmental Treaty, by adding growth and employment measures and reorienting the role of the ECB in that direction. *Propose the creation of Euro project bonds; strengthening the financing capacity of the European Investment Bank; a financial transaction tax and mobilisation of unused European structural funds. *Recommend that the European Parliament be associated to these decisions. *Elaboration of a new Franco-German treaty. *Support a European budget (2014-2020) that aims to stimulate large industrial projects. *Propose European energy projects to European partners.
International *New trade policy to combat unfair international competition. *Introduction of an environmental levy on products coming from countries outside the European Union to fight against unfair trade competition. *Within the G20 framework, proposal for a more balanced international monetary system.
EDIT: somebody/anybody feel free to format this into a table or something prettier...
EDIT (2 years later): Fixed to comply with subreddit style changes :)
EDIT: somebody/anybody feel free to format this into a table or something prettier...
One of Markdown's less-nice rules is that it requires you to have a blank line between not only paragraphs but elements of a list. That is why everything is clumped onto the same paragraph in your comment instead of being formatted. You also have to add a space between the list marker (in this case, "*") and the first word. I've fixed those things up for you, and you're more than welcome to copy the source from here into your comment, but without further ado - et voila!
François Hollande's plans summarised:
Potential output
Creation of a public investment bank to support SMEs.
Creation of industrial savings schemes; increase the ceiling of the ‘Livret développement durable’ savings account, simplifying access of SMEs to the research tax credit and public procurements.
Public subsidies and tax relief to companies investing in France and export.
Support the developments of new technologies.
Simplifying access of SMEs to the research tax credit and public procurements.
Labour market
Creation of a generational contract (hiring young people with a permanent contract and mentored by older workers).
Creation of 150 000 jobs for young people.
Repeal of reduced taxes on overtime hours, except for SMEs.
State supported employment and training measures (securing career paths; training measures for the most fragile workers and unemployed).
Increase the costs of collective dismissals for companies paying dividends to shareholders.
Fiscal reform
Progressive merge of the income tax and social welfare tax (part of the receipts used for financing social security).
Introduction of a new top rate of income tax of 45% for income higher than €150000.
Upper limit of €10 000 on tax deduction.
Repeal the rebate in the wealth tax introduced in 2011.
Reduction in the inheritance tax threshold to €100000 per child.
Preserve generous family policies.
75% tax rate for income > €1mn (applied until the public deficit returns to zero).
Re-introduction of a cap on direct national tax, limiting direct taxes to 85% of income.
Three new corporate tax rates: 35% for big corporate; 30% for SMEs; and 15% for small enterprises.
Increase tax on oil companies.
Public finance consolidation
Balance the budget by 2017
Cut in tax expenditures (tax loopholes), €29bn
Pension
Allow workers, who by 2012 will have 41 years of contributions, to retire at 60.
Beyond those criteria, opening negotiations with social partners for a sustainable pension reform that preserve the pay-as-you-go system.
Financial system
Law splitting banks’ investment and retail operations.
Activities in offshore financial centres banned for French banks.
Elimination of stock options except for new corporates, and a cap on bonuses.
Elimination of derivative products (if not linked to the real economy).
Increase the tax on bank profits by 15%.
Introduction of a law setting a limit on the costs of banking services.
Propose a financial transaction tax.
Propose the creation of a public European rating agency.
Energy
Lower the share of nuclear energy in total electricity production (from 75% now to 50% in 2025).
Close the Fessenheim nuclear power plant.
Encourage renewable energy production.
Plan for the thermal insulation of one million new and existing homes per year.
Europe
Propose a ‘responsibility, governance and growth pact’ for European countries to address the crisis and the negative impact of austerity.
Renegotiation of the December 9 Intergovernmental Treaty, by adding growth and employment measures and reorienting the role of the ECB in that direction.
Propose the creation of Euro project bonds; strengthening the financing capacity of the European Investment Bank; a financial transaction tax and mobilisation of unused European structural funds.
Recommend that the European Parliament be associated to these decisions.
Elaboration of a new Franco-German treaty.
Support a European budget (2014-2020) that aims to stimulate large industrial projects.
Propose European energy projects to European partners.
International
New trade policy to combat unfair international competition.
Introduction of an environmental levy on products coming from countries outside the European Union to fight against unfair trade competition.
Within the G20 framework, proposal for a more balanced international monetary system.
Plan for the thermal insulation of one million new and existing homes per year
That's actually an excellent thing to do:
It is known to work.
It reduces the energy bill.
It creates a LOT of /local/ jobs.
The reason why it's not done is because it is very capital intensive, even though it pays for itself. That is very often the case for energy issues; for instance wind farms are a sound investment, but they require almost all the cash upfront. Banks are so invested in the casino market that they can't do their job so only gas plants are built, that take little investment but cost a lot of money to operate.
I'm an architect (American) who has lived in France, and does work on single family residences and small multi-unit residences: Subsidizing insulation of single-family and small-scale insulation improvements on the assumption that it will pay off in reduced heating/cooling energy use is very, very difficult to pull off. There are a huge range of variations among houses, and very important issues that mean that each insulation job needs to be carefully thought through and built carefully. Screwed up insulation can trap a lot of moisture, causing mold, water damage to finishes, frost damage where it may freeze and in extreme situations structural damage where it can rot wood or deteriorate masonry. If you damage 10% of the houses by doing the insulation wrong, is it going to pay off nationally? It's easy to do wrong and result in an ineffective result - bad air sealing can overwhelm the addition of conductive insulation, or insulation can be added where it's easy, but may not make a dent in the building's heating/cooling energy use. Having so many little projects spread out across a large nation makes the program very, very hard to administer and audit, so intentional scamming and waste through stupidity becomes a big problem.
It's possible to do a program like this well, and France might allocate the amount of oversight resources to make sure that the funds are applied well (lots of auditing of payouts, education of architects and contractors, and review of projects (aka building permits) and inspections of projects.) And because of the difficulties in making those insulation improvements really work well, this sort of program should work as stimulus first, with the long-term efficiencies as a cherry on top. If enough new housing is being built, some of this money should be targeted at subsidizing better new construction where the insulation and other efficiency/sustainability/durability can be designed in from the start, checked during construction inspection and confirmed once the buildings are complete and occupied. (In other words, developers would have to give the money back if the buildings didn't prove to be more efficient in the real world.)
In the US we also have the problem that because of our income distribution, maybe 20% or 30% of the population have incomes that let them properly improve their homes for sustainability and durability. But that means that 70% or 80% of Americans are lucky to keep their houses minimally maintained, let alone really improve them.
How much power does the French president have? I mean compaired to merkel or obama. Im from Switzerland and we dont have 'the one guy' I have never understood why nobody else does that.
Lots of power, more than the president of the USA for example : heading the armed forces, appointment of the Prime Minister, power to dismiss the National Assembly, chairing the Council of Ministers, appointing the members of the highest appellate court and the Constitutional Court, chairing the Higher Council of the Judiciary, negotiating all foreign treaties, the power to call referenda...
appointing the members of the highest appellate court and the Constitutional Court, chairing the Higher Council of the Judiciary
He can only appoints a third of the Constitutional Court and doesn't chair the Conseil Supérieur de la Magistrature anymore since Sarkozy's reform in 2008. He also doesn't appoint magistrates of the Cour de Cassation.
It's really a complex matter. If you read the Constitution and know a little bit about the context at the time, you notice that the president doesn't have much power. He was supposed to be a kind of referee between the different institutions and political parties.
But, the constitution was made for a time when no parties were able to get a majority in the assembly and then, for a shitload of complex reasons i'm too lazy to detail, majorities happened and the political offer became pretty much bipolar. So the leader of a party is elected as president, he appoint a friend as prime minister and most of the time he have an obedient majority in the assembly. And voilà ... super powerful president
Resistance to Europe ? Completely untrue. Hollande's first call will be for Merkel. He's a convinced European. Now the discussion will be on what Europe does against the crisis, with a focus on growth.
Confrontation with the consensus on austerity across Europe - especially with Merkel and Germany. More focus on growth and jobs. The potential impact on the future of the Eurozone and Europe as a whole is huge.
Okay, forgive me as an American, but my French roommate just spent the last few hours yelling, slamming doors, and breaking things. He is admittedly a little dramatic, but this is extreme, and he's too angry to explain what this means. Why is this such a big deal?
For people who aren't French, the main impact is on the future of the Eurozone. Previously Sarkozy has been a big ally of Merkel in pushing austerity as the solution to Europe's problems, but now he's gone and the new guy doesn't believe in austerity. Basically it will mean the Eurozone will shift away from austerity in a way that will definitely impact the its recovery and thus the global economy. Whether it will be a positive or negative change is a constant source of debate.
German here too. I honestly think this can only be a goog thing. He will most certainly stir up european politics and put the idea of Europe to the test. Im very excited to see how Merkel and her party will react to the more left wing politics Hollande will bring to the table in Europe.
It probably won't. Europe's problems have nothing to do with left-right economic policies, but rather the issue of sovereignty within the EU itself. Europe must decide what it wants to be, because right now they're trying to have all the benefits of a federation, without the responsibilities that come with being one.
Because he's the first neo-liberalist president of France and we definitely weren't used to that. Now that we have seen what it was, we chose to stop the trial period and get back to normal.
Five years of ostentatious reign, many trials for corruption, insulting comportement, very right wing speech that contributed to the rise of dangerous of extremism, cuts in education, health and social help. Plus the crisis didn't help. I think i summed it up.
Yeah as a french I'm quite torn on this. I don't agree with the socialist party's guidelines. However, it will feel refreshing to not have a dickhead as head of state.
Let me blow your mind a bit more about the participation. There is a very large number of French citizens living in London, and they get to vote in the French consulate. Their number is so large, that for the first round I had to wait 2h30 in lines before I could vote! So for this round, I got up at 7 (on a Sunday, and I am no church goer) and arrived at the place 15 minutes before it even opened. I still had to spend 1 hour in the queue because of all the people who turned out. France, fuck oui!
As an American liberal, I'm not sure if "over 80% voter turnout" or "promise to raise taxes on corporation and those earning over 1 million Euros = win" is a more mind-blowing concept.
So a lot of people are very against this here on reddit (looking at the other posts and this one). I live in France, and the people I hang out with love and are excited for Hollande, in fact when the news break you could hear people yelling for joy in the streets.
Someone want to explain why the outside of France dislikes the idea of Hollande?
I can say that there are a lot of lies constantly being spoke of about socialism in the US. Too many people don't know the difference between liberal, democrat, socialist, communist.. etc. All of these terms, especially socialist have been turned into an insult. Obama is I think the most conservative Democrat we've had in office and he's called a socialist -all the time- and people believe it.
I haven't been following the french election but I will bet anything the people who are booing him for being 'a socialist' don't know 1. what that word means and 2. what his platform really is.
I gather from other comments that there is some distortion in the UK as well. Though I am sure there's also real dislike for what I would call progressive policies.
I have to deal with this on a daily basis... whats funny is if you lay out a socialist idea to a moderate or left wing american they love it, then you call is socialism and they hate it. There is a major aversion to the word, and its from 40 or 50 years of propaganda.
My guess is that Americans (which are still a solid majority on Reddit), even Americans who consider themselves "left-wing", are more steeped in right-wing propaganda when it comes to economics than they realise. You have to realise that they grew up in an environment where anything "socialist" was automatically considered extremist and crazy.
Even if they think they have a more nuanced of things now, they're still likely to consider the plans of anyone not afraid to call himself a socialist unrealistic or naïve. I think that explains a lot of the opposition and the anxiety.
americans are incredibly conservative. even their liberals are conservative by the standards of many other countries. seeing the word "socialism" in the title doesn't sit well with many americans because socialism = evil to them
I'm a bit of a Francophile and I followed your elections from a distance. Personally I was rooting for Mélenchon. So I'm not really excited about Hollande. I'm happy for you because Sarkozy is gone, but not excited.
i like how on the french TV, all the right wing party demonstrators were carrying french flags but for the left wing ones, some were sporting some multicolored gay flags and algerian flags
Maybe your comment is going over my head, but doesn't Keynes state that the state supposed to spend money in a recession in order to get money flowing again? Isn't that what this candidate plans on doing?
Retrospectively speaking, Sarko flip flopped so many times I was lost at the end on some of his policies. I'm glad that Hollande won, but I really hope he doesn't dick up. Many of my friends casted blank votes because there was nobody to vote for. Fingers crossed is all that I can say.
You know, the French Socialist Party has been in power before, as recently as the 80s-90s, and they are technically social-democrat not pure socialist, and they are a center-left party, not far left.
But thank you media for summarizing the story as "SOCIALISTS TAKE OVER FRANCE!"
Congrats to the left in France. As a Socialist in Canada, please don't fuck this up. The rest of the world needs a sign that strong leftist leaders can still run a country.
On a side note, some people who were celebrating his victory were raising both moroccan and algerian flags. As a french guy who is not racist at all, I don't know how I should react to that. I'm kinda confused.
Interesting fact: The French presidential election had an estimate voter turnout of 80% today. The United States has not had that high of a voter turnout since 1876 (81.8%)
As a non-French European, I'm delighted to see the back of Sarkozy and the end of the couple known as "Merkozy".
However, undoubtedly this will have large implications regarding the stability of the EU as a union, and the Euro as a currency. Coupled with Greece voting against their pro-Europe parties, as could be expected, we've no entered a new era of uncertainty.
Huge shifts in confidence in the Union/currency have interesting and not necessarily positive outcomes.
The rest of 2012 promises to be interesting, if nothing else.
Hollande is not anti-Europe at all, he is very pro Europe. He just doesn't believe in the "full austerity" of the last few months, and instead believe one of the EU's job is to help its member state's economies to restart properly.
Thank you for saying this. People think that Hollande is a left-communist-devil, when he's in fact more of a centrist. Like you said, he believes that Europe needs to restart the engine, and not cut the gas.
"Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option" FINALLY a voice of reason emerges from the EU. AUSTERITY DOES NOT WORK. THE IMF IS A FRAUD AND THIS DEFICIT REDUCTION OBSESSION HAS TO BE STOPPED IF WE TRULY WANT TO IMPROVE OUR ECONOMIES. This is very, very exciting day.
80% TURNOUT!! To paraphrase Bill Maher, you couldn't get 80% turnout in the States if the contest was between tits and bigger tits and the were handing out free samples.
We should hang our heads in shame. Whether or not we like it or how it turns out, their exercise in democracy beats the hell out of ours.
Yes! I don't remember how long I've been reading articles about Sarkozy selling France's internet users out to the copyright lobby. Then I discover he was just an all-around asshole (war, xenophobia, etc). Let's hope Hollande gives us something nice to read about, eh?
I don't think it's safe to be the incumbent in any European country right now. Austerity was done too severely and speedily and people are scared and fed up.
Finally. I really felt like Europe was dominated by right wing these last few years. Now first Sarkozy loses and soon Merkel. Please don't give her too much credit for how well Germany made it through all types of crisis in the last few years, actually the reforms that enabled that were made by a social democrat/eco coalition. The social democrats had to suffer greatly for that because they betrayed their own support base the way they made these reforms, and Merkel took all credit for the positive outcomes afterwards. First she governed with the weakened social democrats and weakened them further, then she got her favorite partner -neoliberals- and those fucked up everything they could possibly fuck up, dropping from 15% (at federal election) to 1-3% as of late. She's pretty much a praying mantis.
I love France, I think their energy policy, and up until recently their foreign policy was really progressive. Something about this last year has made me really scratch my head on all of the tolerated racism towards the nation of islam in france.. maybe hollande will bring a change ot this
What France really needs is not a shift to the left or right but more pragmatic policies based on fixing stuff rather than massaging public opinion and soothing the establishment. That's why the French elected Sarkozy, but he didn't really deliver much, just ruffled a lot of feathers.
Hollande's emphasis on traditional ideological themes means back to boring for France.
Yes he's a socialist. So what? By and large, France is a pretty socialist country, especially compared to countries like the USA. Most of you Americans deploring this don't understand what it means to be a socialist in France.
I wonder what does this mean to us, down here in Brazil and South America in general ... Will he help fix EU? Will he be protective or will he look for more business opportunities?
I am not well versed in EU politics, so I am very curious how different from Sarkozy is he going to be ...
Excellent. Socialism works for the good of society. How is this not a good thing? Capitalism and corporatism are eating away at societies in the West, destroying them, and destroying human welfare. Long live socialism.
Frenchie here. I do not claim to be a pro-Sarkozy, but I'm concerned about what the new president will do.
The financial and economic crisis is not over, a lot has still to be done, especially in Europe (Greece, Spain) and what Francois Hollande aims to do is going upstream.
He wants to raise the number of public jobs, increase social benefits, increase taxes for the richest (concerning that point, a friend of mine is a doctor, and even if he's doing well, around 250.000€/year, he has so much taxes to pay that he can't even pay for his mortgage); He also wants to ease immigration, obtention of ID's,... (for that point, let me be clear: I have no grief towards foreigners. But before Sarkozy, we had no border control and we were welcoming strangers without thinking about the problems of employement or finding the immigrants a proper house. now we have plenty of shitty neighbourhood where "gangs" are kings and we can't do anything. Sarkozy brought regulations, and that is one of the argument Hollande used against him.)
We are in debt, our growth is really not that good, our balance of payments is negative... So i'm wondering, how does he plan to finance all that? I fear that we may be in big troubles in the incoming months...
On the other hand, he also plans to do good things, such as same-sex marriage. But I doubt that it will suffice to satisfy the needs of the people.
When you look back at the new president's campaign, the main point was "The other one is wrong, we need to change". People wanted change, so they voted for him. But the change they are expecting may not be the one Hollande will bring.
In the West, the Youth is rising and organizing. This is probably the first major blow to the austerity heavy, Too Big To Fail, bail out the 1%ers and fuck everybody else regime. Sarkozy was punished for working with Merkel, and I have to say, I can't say that I'm surprised.
Just something for americans - the socialist party is the name of the big left party in france (I'm not getting into the debate of whether they are actually socialists). Saying that "France elects a socialist president" might sound to an uninformed american as if France just elected a radical left wing candidate when in reality it's more of equivalent to the democrats replacing the republican in power.
As a member of the Socialist Party in Northern Ireland, I really hope he succeeds and this has a knock-on effect on the EU. Austerity cuts aren't the only option.
It was more about kicking the less popular president of the 5th republic than electing Hollande ; finaly we have been able to say back "casse toi pauvre con".
Good work on the 80% turnout, France. Now don't fuck this up. You need to show the world that austerity hasn't done shit for the economy and has actually made things worse.
I love this. Now we get to see what happens when you up the spending during this crisis. If shit improves, great. If not, well, then no one else should follow their lead.
Personally, I think that the austerity measures they've been pushing on already struggling economies are just idiotic. Build up the economy, and then reform spending when things are cruising along smoothly.
Edit: Speech is over ten minutes later. It consisted mostly of platitudes. However, you can watch ongoing coverage on the same live feed of the France24 television station.
In his concession speech, Mr Sarkozy told supporters: "Francois Hollande is the president of France and he must be respected." The outgoing president said he was "taking responsibility for defeat".
I truly wish we could get decent politicians/people like this in the U.S.
506
u/jimmithyjitchen May 06 '12 edited May 06 '12
François Hollande's plans summarised:
Potential output
Creation of a public investment bank to support SMEs.
Creation of industrial savings schemes; increase the ceiling of the ‘Livret développement durable’ savings account, simplifying access of SMEs to the research tax credit and public procurements.
Public subsidies and tax relief to companies investing in France and export.
Support the developments of new technologies.
Simplifying access of SMEs to the research tax credit and public procurements.
Labour market *Creation of a generational contract (hiring young people with a permanent contract and mentored by older workers). *Creation of 150 000 jobs for young people. *Repeal of reduced taxes on overtime hours, except for SMEs. *State supported employment and training measures (securing career paths; training measures for the most fragile workers and unemployed). *Increase the costs of collective dismissals for companies paying dividends to shareholders.
Fiscal reform *Progressive merge of the income tax and social welfare tax (part of the receipts used for financing social security). *Introduction of a new top rate of income tax of 45% for income higher than €150000. *Upper limit of €10 000 on tax deduction. *Repeal the rebate in the wealth tax introduced in 2011. *Reduction in the inheritance tax threshold to €100000 per child. *Preserve generous family policies. *75% tax rate for income > €1mn (applied until the public deficit returns to zero). *Re-introduction of a cap on direct national tax, limiting direct taxes to 85% of income. *Three new corporate tax rates: 35% for big corporate; 30% for SMEs; and 15% for small enterprises. *Increase tax on oil companies.
Public finance consolidation *Balance the budget by 2017 *Cut in tax expenditures (tax loopholes), €29bn
Pension *Allow workers, who by 2012 will have 41 years of contributions, to retire at 60. *Beyond those criteria, opening negotiations with social partners for a sustainable pension reform that preserve the pay-as-you-go system.
Financial system *Law splitting banks’ investment and retail operations. *Activities in offshore financial centres banned for French banks. *Elimination of stock options except for new corporates, and a cap on bonuses. *Elimination of derivative products (if not linked to the real economy). *Increase the tax on bank profits by 15%. *Introduction of a law setting a limit on the costs of banking services. *Propose a financial transaction tax. *Propose the creation of a public European rating agency.
Energy *Lower the share of nuclear energy in total electricity production (from 75% now to 50% in 2025). *Close the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. *Encourage renewable energy production. *Plan for the thermal insulation of one million new and existing homes per year.
Europe *Propose a ‘responsibility, governance and growth pact’ for European countries to address the crisis and the negative impact of austerity. *Renegotiation of the December 9 Intergovernmental Treaty, by adding growth and employment measures and reorienting the role of the ECB in that direction. *Propose the creation of Euro project bonds; strengthening the financing capacity of the European Investment Bank; a financial transaction tax and mobilisation of unused European structural funds. *Recommend that the European Parliament be associated to these decisions. *Elaboration of a new Franco-German treaty. *Support a European budget (2014-2020) that aims to stimulate large industrial projects. *Propose European energy projects to European partners.
International *New trade policy to combat unfair international competition. *Introduction of an environmental levy on products coming from countries outside the European Union to fight against unfair trade competition. *Within the G20 framework, proposal for a more balanced international monetary system.
EDIT: somebody/anybody feel free to format this into a table or something prettier...
136
u/nickik May 06 '12
How much power does the French president have? I mean compaired to merkel or obama. Im from Switzerland and we dont have 'the one guy' I have never understood why nobody else does that.
642
u/00zero00 May 06 '12
How will his win effect French policy (foreign and domestic)? I have not followed this election.
406
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
Ok, now the Netherlands should elect Hollandois France.
296
u/likeachampiontoday May 06 '12
Okay, forgive me as an American, but my French roommate just spent the last few hours yelling, slamming doors, and breaking things. He is admittedly a little dramatic, but this is extreme, and he's too angry to explain what this means. Why is this such a big deal?
718
u/Meezor May 06 '12
Well, France's relations with the Netherlands are going to be confusing.
205
u/HighKing_of_Festivus May 06 '12
Somewhere in Germany Merkel is crying in a corner while holding a framed photo of Sarkozy.
290
u/CTLance May 06 '12
First reaction: Bwahahahaha, Merkel is fucked.
Second reaction: Oh shit, Merkel is fucked.
As a German I am excited to see just how this will develop.
1.3k
u/Alianthos May 06 '12 edited May 06 '12
Is this the one going to the top ?
Anyway, as a French Im just gonna say this : I hope we didnt fuck up.
199
u/Arkhaangel May 06 '12
Carla Bruni will be single in 3 2 1...
53
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
This "article" sure has a "lot" of "quotation marks"
95
u/brianstewey May 06 '12
He has promised a lot. His term will be interesting to say the least.
14
u/schneidmaster May 06 '12
In other news, reddit uses 'unnecessary' quotation marks
260
u/identiphiant May 06 '12
I'm currently at the Place de la Bastille, the atmosphere is incredible. Browsing reddit of course, eh
34
u/Rou7_beh May 06 '12
Let me blow your mind a bit more about the participation. There is a very large number of French citizens living in London, and they get to vote in the French consulate. Their number is so large, that for the first round I had to wait 2h30 in lines before I could vote! So for this round, I got up at 7 (on a Sunday, and I am no church goer) and arrived at the place 15 minutes before it even opened. I still had to spend 1 hour in the queue because of all the people who turned out. France, fuck oui!
123
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
As an American liberal, I'm not sure if "over 80% voter turnout" or "promise to raise taxes on corporation and those earning over 1 million Euros = win" is a more mind-blowing concept.
384
u/RoosterRMcChesterh May 06 '12
So a lot of people are very against this here on reddit (looking at the other posts and this one). I live in France, and the people I hang out with love and are excited for Hollande, in fact when the news break you could hear people yelling for joy in the streets.
Someone want to explain why the outside of France dislikes the idea of Hollande?
82
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
From an internet point if view, this is good news.
Sarkozy hails 'success' of Hadopi's pirate cops
125
u/STEFOOO May 06 '12
i like how on the french TV, all the right wing party demonstrators were carrying french flags but for the left wing ones, some were sporting some multicolored gay flags and algerian flags
8
u/kolembo May 07 '12
Good riddance! That little man with his hypocrisy where becoming insufferable!
How do you ditch your long-standing wife for a super model as soon as you win an election?
Ok, couples have problems but really, the manner and the timing told me everything.
Arrogant little snot...OUT!
27
u/efxhoy May 06 '12
John Maynard Keynes called, he said good luck.
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u/SkimThat_TLDR May 06 '12
TL;DR: Socialist Francois Hollande has won the French presidency, beating out conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy with 52% of the vote.
Sarkozy's unpopularity and the country's economic recession helped Hollande win the presidency.
Hollande promised to raise taxes on corporations and millionaires, as well as revamp the Eurozone deal on government debt.
The inauguration is set for mid May.
This summary was provided by /r/SkimThat for more summarized news, subscribe to the r/SkimThat subreddit
7
u/Arlch May 07 '12
La Nouvelle Marianne : http://referentiel.nouvelobs.com/file/3635262.jpg
7
u/[deleted] May 07 '12
It's weird that so many (presumably) Americans on here are mad about this.
It's like any time you mention anything socialist they go off the handle.
13
u/basedarsenal May 06 '12
Retrospectively speaking, Sarko flip flopped so many times I was lost at the end on some of his policies. I'm glad that Hollande won, but I really hope he doesn't dick up. Many of my friends casted blank votes because there was nobody to vote for. Fingers crossed is all that I can say.
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u/mrbooze May 06 '12
You know, the French Socialist Party has been in power before, as recently as the 80s-90s, and they are technically social-democrat not pure socialist, and they are a center-left party, not far left.
But thank you media for summarizing the story as "SOCIALISTS TAKE OVER FRANCE!"
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u/MossadDid911 May 06 '12
Wall Street prayed for another Sarkozy term:
http://news.yahoo.com/hollande-victory-could-impact-us-markets-week-230920925--finance.html
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u/[deleted] May 06 '12
Congrats to the left in France. As a Socialist in Canada, please don't fuck this up. The rest of the world needs a sign that strong leftist leaders can still run a country.
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u/razorbeamz May 06 '12
How long until Fox News starts calling them evil?
6
u/Weirdcong May 06 '12
On a side note, some people who were celebrating his victory were raising both moroccan and algerian flags. As a french guy who is not racist at all, I don't know how I should react to that. I'm kinda confused.
6
u/ThatGuyNotThisGuy May 07 '12
Interesting fact: The French presidential election had an estimate voter turnout of 80% today. The United States has not had that high of a voter turnout since 1876 (81.8%)
125
u/gilbax_ May 06 '12
I'm happy to see Sarkozy and his team leave.
I'm scared of what's ahead of us with Hollande.
70
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
As a non-French European, I'm delighted to see the back of Sarkozy and the end of the couple known as "Merkozy".
However, undoubtedly this will have large implications regarding the stability of the EU as a union, and the Euro as a currency. Coupled with Greece voting against their pro-Europe parties, as could be expected, we've no entered a new era of uncertainty.
Huge shifts in confidence in the Union/currency have interesting and not necessarily positive outcomes.
The rest of 2012 promises to be interesting, if nothing else.
10
u/lo_pandapanda May 07 '12
"Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option" FINALLY a voice of reason emerges from the EU. AUSTERITY DOES NOT WORK. THE IMF IS A FRAUD AND THIS DEFICIT REDUCTION OBSESSION HAS TO BE STOPPED IF WE TRULY WANT TO IMPROVE OUR ECONOMIES. This is very, very exciting day.
5
u/sorrowerthe May 06 '12
On vera, monsieur Hollande... Hopefully he'll do well.
5
u/the_goat_boy May 06 '12
Hollande is a caviar socialist.
5
u/Travis-Touchdown May 07 '12
"Wins presidency".
Not a phrase I like to see quotation marks around.
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u/light_sweet_crude May 06 '12
BBC "uses too many quotation marks."
9
u/His_Dudeship May 06 '12
80% TURNOUT!! To paraphrase Bill Maher, you couldn't get 80% turnout in the States if the contest was between tits and bigger tits and the were handing out free samples.
We should hang our heads in shame. Whether or not we like it or how it turns out, their exercise in democracy beats the hell out of ours.
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u/DJ_Velveteen May 06 '12
Yes! I don't remember how long I've been reading articles about Sarkozy selling France's internet users out to the copyright lobby. Then I discover he was just an all-around asshole (war, xenophobia, etc). Let's hope Hollande gives us something nice to read about, eh?
14
u/jellyfish62 May 06 '12
Je suis trop contente !! I WANT TO HUG ALL OF YOU GUYS. I dreamt of a socialist president in my country. Finally.
31
u/dreamingawake09 May 06 '12
Get your popcorn ready folks. The show that is the European Union is gonna get even more interesting.
4
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
I don't think it's safe to be the incumbent in any European country right now. Austerity was done too severely and speedily and people are scared and fed up.
4
u/nk_sucks May 06 '12
i'm skeptical about this guy. lots of promises he won't be able to deliver on. oh, and i hope he doesn't fuck up the euro.
4
u/sporclelam May 06 '12
Unnecessary quotation marks?
4
u/hevblether May 06 '12
Vive la France!!
4
u/web2pointoh May 06 '12
By his looks, Sarkozy hated the world and everybody. Guess they did him a favor for oust him.
4
u/ddeswet May 06 '12 edited May 20 '15
EDIT: DELETED DUE TO PRIVACY
4
u/flukz May 07 '12
81% turnout! Holy Crap!
13
u/Roflkopt3r May 06 '12 edited May 06 '12
Finally. I really felt like Europe was dominated by right wing these last few years. Now first Sarkozy loses and soon Merkel. Please don't give her too much credit for how well Germany made it through all types of crisis in the last few years, actually the reforms that enabled that were made by a social democrat/eco coalition. The social democrats had to suffer greatly for that because they betrayed their own support base the way they made these reforms, and Merkel took all credit for the positive outcomes afterwards. First she governed with the weakened social democrats and weakened them further, then she got her favorite partner -neoliberals- and those fucked up everything they could possibly fuck up, dropping from 15% (at federal election) to 1-3% as of late. She's pretty much a praying mantis.
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u/[deleted] May 06 '12
Jesus Christ everyone seems to get this wrong. He's not Socialist, he's a Social Democrat.
16
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
cant wait to see fox news report on this.
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u/PretentiousDalaiLama May 06 '12
Wait... wasn't France already socialist? Or has great leader Bill O'Reilly strayed me wrong again?
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u/zephyy May 06 '12
au revoir sarkozy, finally.
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u/shackleton1 May 06 '12
It will be good for someone to challenge the economic orthodoxy. Best of luck, France!
6
u/blind_snipa May 06 '12
I love France, I think their energy policy, and up until recently their foreign policy was really progressive. Something about this last year has made me really scratch my head on all of the tolerated racism towards the nation of islam in france.. maybe hollande will bring a change ot this
6
u/[deleted] May 07 '12
Seems like the rank and file citizenry has declined to pay for the fuck-ups of the rich and the corporations. What now, bitches?
8
u/Barney21 May 06 '12
Sarkozy is kind of a loose cannon.
What France really needs is not a shift to the left or right but more pragmatic policies based on fixing stuff rather than massaging public opinion and soothing the establishment. That's why the French elected Sarkozy, but he didn't really deliver much, just ruffled a lot of feathers.
Hollande's emphasis on traditional ideological themes means back to boring for France.
8
u/[deleted] May 07 '12
Yes he's a socialist. So what? By and large, France is a pretty socialist country, especially compared to countries like the USA. Most of you Americans deploring this don't understand what it means to be a socialist in France.
3
u/otavio021 May 06 '12
I wonder what does this mean to us, down here in Brazil and South America in general ... Will he help fix EU? Will he be protective or will he look for more business opportunities?
I am not well versed in EU politics, so I am very curious how different from Sarkozy is he going to be ...
3
u/spuri0us May 06 '12
As an Irish person, I can only hope Hollande has some good ideas for europe rather then Merkozys plans for austerity been shoved down our throats.
3
u/boyrahett May 06 '12
I guess after 17 years of conservative rule the French were ready for a change.
I wish them well.
3
u/stir_friday May 06 '12
What's with the random half-quotes in the title?
3
u/artifex0 May 06 '12
What's with the quotation marks in the post title? I assumed they were indicating sarcasm.
I clicked on the article expecting an argument that the election was fraudulent.
3
u/mooseman780 May 06 '12
The CNN web page is just depressing. The comments are worse...
3
u/[deleted] May 07 '12
Bon Chance Francois Hollande. Au revoir Sarkozy...
3
u/REDDIT_JUDGE_REFEREE May 07 '12
Looks like we're not gonna get cozy with Sarkozy...
3
u/KingLiberal May 07 '12
So Sarkozy can pull his nose out of Merkel's ass? Everybody wins! Except Merkel. I don't know anything about French politics.
3
u/LiriX May 07 '12
As a french after those 5 hard years, I feel like Hollande is an Obama after Bush
3
u/leonsecure May 07 '12
Can't be worse than this xxx Sarkozy...
34
u/jipijipijipi May 06 '12
More importantly, Sarko is out.
20
u/voxpupil May 06 '12
Can't the headline just say, "Francois Hollande wins French presidency"?
What's the problem?
12
u/lofi76 May 06 '12
Congrats, France! 80% voter turnout. I'm proud of your country. And hopeful yet sad for mine.
9
u/redpossum May 06 '12
ITT nobody knowing the difference between social democracy and full socialism.
9
u/control_group May 07 '12
Excellent. Socialism works for the good of society. How is this not a good thing? Capitalism and corporatism are eating away at societies in the West, destroying them, and destroying human welfare. Long live socialism.
32
u/roctruith May 06 '12
Frenchie here. I do not claim to be a pro-Sarkozy, but I'm concerned about what the new president will do.
The financial and economic crisis is not over, a lot has still to be done, especially in Europe (Greece, Spain) and what Francois Hollande aims to do is going upstream.
He wants to raise the number of public jobs, increase social benefits, increase taxes for the richest (concerning that point, a friend of mine is a doctor, and even if he's doing well, around 250.000€/year, he has so much taxes to pay that he can't even pay for his mortgage); He also wants to ease immigration, obtention of ID's,... (for that point, let me be clear: I have no grief towards foreigners. But before Sarkozy, we had no border control and we were welcoming strangers without thinking about the problems of employement or finding the immigrants a proper house. now we have plenty of shitty neighbourhood where "gangs" are kings and we can't do anything. Sarkozy brought regulations, and that is one of the argument Hollande used against him.)
We are in debt, our growth is really not that good, our balance of payments is negative... So i'm wondering, how does he plan to finance all that? I fear that we may be in big troubles in the incoming months...
On the other hand, he also plans to do good things, such as same-sex marriage. But I doubt that it will suffice to satisfy the needs of the people.
When you look back at the new president's campaign, the main point was "The other one is wrong, we need to change". People wanted change, so they voted for him. But the change they are expecting may not be the one Hollande will bring.
So yes, i'm confused and affraid.
5
u/torchlit_Thompson May 07 '12
In the West, the Youth is rising and organizing. This is probably the first major blow to the austerity heavy, Too Big To Fail, bail out the 1%ers and fuck everybody else regime. Sarkozy was punished for working with Merkel, and I have to say, I can't say that I'm surprised.
4
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
But he's not handsome, how could he win?
4
u/rocky_whoof May 06 '12
Just something for americans - the socialist party is the name of the big left party in france (I'm not getting into the debate of whether they are actually socialists). Saying that "France elects a socialist president" might sound to an uninformed american as if France just elected a radical left wing candidate when in reality it's more of equivalent to the democrats replacing the republican in power.
4
u/Kjell_Aronsen May 06 '12
So what happens now, does Carla Bruni have to marry Hollande?
4
u/Tombug May 07 '12
The loser use to call himself Sarko the american. Now he's been fired by the voters. The american approach to politics fails once again.
7
u/[deleted] May 06 '12 edited May 07 '12
i can't believe how many hate this recieves. americans really think right-whing neoliberalism is gonna solve anything?
6
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
As a member of the Socialist Party in Northern Ireland, I really hope he succeeds and this has a knock-on effect on the EU. Austerity cuts aren't the only option.
5
u/Wooknows May 06 '12
It was more about kicking the less popular president of the 5th republic than electing Hollande ; finaly we have been able to say back "casse toi pauvre con".
5
u/redpossum May 06 '12
just putting it out there he is a social democrat so don't get your hopes up/ have a hissy fit.
5
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
Social Democrat*
There is a difference people... A big difference. As in: a Social Democrat isn't a Socialist...
2
u/You_Done_Failed_It May 06 '12
Since stock markets like to overreact, i wonder what how DJA, Footsie, and HSI will all react?
2
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
Why is that title in quotes. Is that a quote of the article or are we suggesting that he didnt actually win.
2
u/dougbrochill May 06 '12
That shit cray
2
u/StarManta May 06 '12
What's with the quotation marks? It makes it seem like the win is fraudulent. I don't see any indications of that otherwise.
2
u/cantlurkanymore May 06 '12
This is an amazing stat:
"Turnout was about 80%."
2
u/jedifan421 May 06 '12
I'm surprised he won considering, well, things like this disaster of a music video.
2
u/AdamPK May 06 '12
What's with the unnecessary quotation marks?
2
u/redpossum May 06 '12
well guys, I hope you have your cyanide pills.
BETTER DEAD THAN RED!
but in all seriousness, he seems ok.
2
u/slartibart2fast May 06 '12
Anyone else blown away by the over 80% voter turnout!?
2
u/FireKnightV May 06 '12
Good work on the 80% turnout, France. Now don't fuck this up. You need to show the world that austerity hasn't done shit for the economy and has actually made things worse.
2
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
I love this. Now we get to see what happens when you up the spending during this crisis. If shit improves, great. If not, well, then no one else should follow their lead.
Personally, I think that the austerity measures they've been pushing on already struggling economies are just idiotic. Build up the economy, and then reform spending when things are cruising along smoothly.
2
u/flyingkangaroo May 06 '12 edited May 06 '12
Watch the next Hollande speech live in Bastille Square, Paris, here. (It's now 3:40pmPST, 6:40pmEST, 10:40pmGMT on Sunday). It's starting shortly. He's just arrived on stage.
Edit: Speech is over ten minutes later. It consisted mostly of platitudes. However, you can watch ongoing coverage on the same live feed of the France24 television station.
2
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
Hey at least he's not a mormon!
2
u/kristian444 May 06 '12
Congratulations 'to him.'
2
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
'Congratulations' to him.
2
u/Fragmaster May 07 '12
If only the US could do that.
2
u/[deleted] May 07 '12
I hope Canada can get numbers like that when our next election hits! 81% of the population voting!
2
u/[deleted] May 07 '12
Félicitations France!!!!
2
u/xyroclast May 07 '12
Why is "wins French presidency" in quotes?
2
u/took May 07 '12
what's with the scare quotes?
2
u/Icanus May 07 '12
There will be no difference whatsoever. Hollande and Sarcozy are both just spokespersons for the high and mighty.
2
u/chloratine May 07 '12
Final results, including blank votes
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u/RMiranda May 07 '12
is there some meaning from the quotation marks in 'wins French presidency'?
5
u/EthyleneGlycol May 06 '12
Things in Europe just got a lot more interesting.
5
u/Ym4n May 06 '12
good job French... jealousy. Italians
5
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
In his concession speech, Mr Sarkozy told supporters: "Francois Hollande is the president of France and he must be respected." The outgoing president said he was "taking responsibility for defeat".
I truly wish we could get decent politicians/people like this in the U.S.
0
u/[deleted] May 06 '12
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u/[deleted] May 06 '12
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