PARIS — Francois Hollande, a moderate Socialist with an easy smile, was elected president of France on Sunday, exit polls showed, narrowly defeating the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative whose five-year term was undermined by Europe’s economic crisis and his combative personality.
The Socialist triumph, in a two-man runoff vote, was put at about 52 to 48 percent by several usually reliable polls. Sarkozy conceded defeat Sunday evening, and said he had called Hollande to wish him luck.
The outcome turned Sarkozy into the latest political leader to fall victim to the European economic implosion of the past four years. Widely predicted, his loss put him in the tracks of leaders in such neighbors as Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Britain who have been voted out of power in least in part because they were identified with hard times for Western Europe’s traditionally comfortable economies.
Hollande’s triumph in turn was tempered by the still-fragile economic situation in France, which hems in the victor no matter his ideology with a need to increase taxes and reduce government expenditures to lower a crushing $2 trillion government debt. In addition, Hollande’s free-market, social-democracy version of Socialism carried no pledges of radical change such as the nationalizations that followed his party’s last presidential victory, when Francois Mitterrand rose to power in 1981.
Hollande’s major foreign-policy difference with the pro-American Sarkozy was over the timetable for withdrawal of about 3,600 French military personnel from the highly unpopular Afghanistan war, including about 2,400 combat troops. Sarkozy had pledged to have combat units out by the end of 2013, slightly ahead of the schedule set by NATO and the United States. But Hollande promised voters he would bring home the combat troops by the end of this year, leaving in place only military instructors and logistics specialists to ship back equipment.
Hollande’s victory marked an astounding rise to the summit for a man who made his reputation as an amenable aide to the powerful and who has never held high national office. Good-humored and overweight, he was given little chance when he declared his candidacy well over a year ago, even by some fellow Socialists who derided him as “the marshmallow” because of his conciliatory approach to problem-solving.
At the time, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the now-disgraced former International Monetary Fund chief, was considered all but certain to become the Socialist Party candidate. His career was shattered, however, when he was charged last May with sexual assault in a New York hotel room and in March, in Lille, with procuring prostitutes.
Hollande, 57, adroitly surfed a wave of discontent against Sarkozy’s hard-charging presidency, building an early lead in opinion polls. The edge narrowed but never went away, despite Sarkozy’s last-minute appeals to anti-immigration sentiment in an attempt to draw support from far-right voters who had cast their ballots in the first round April 22 for Marine Le Pen of the National Front
Sarkozy was generally given high marks for statesmanship in dealing with the economic crisis in the European Union and with other foreign-policy crises, including his leadership in bringing down the late Moammar Gaddafi in Libya. But voter dissatisfaction swelled nevertheless, in part from an impression that working-class French people were not getting enough attention as Sarkozy dealt with the crisis and in part from a widely shared feeling that the president was not a pleasant man.
Sarkozy, also 57, campaigned with the passion and energy that have been his trademark over a long political career, promising his followers in the Union for a Popular Movement a swell of support unregistered by the polls from what he called “the little people of France, those without rank.” But sinking purchasing power, unemployment hovering at nearly 10 percent and pessimism over the future combined with his often aggressive attitude to turn the tide for Hollande.
The Socialist candidate, although making clear that hard times lie ahead, promised to apportion out austerity with a more even hand, including stimulus for economic growth alongside debt reduction. In one telling argument, he charged Sarkozy with protecting the rich by limiting upper-tier tax rates and said, if elected, he would impose a 75 percent rate on all earnings above $1.3 million a year to finance more help for the poor.
Hollande, who formerly headed the Socialist Party, has never been a minister, although he has served for years in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. The son of a well-to-do doctor, he graduated from the Political Studies Institute and the National Administration School, select academies where France grooms its elite.
The young Hollande struck up a relationship there with Segolene Royal, with whom he had four children but never married. The couple separated around the time Royal ran for president in 2007, and Hollande entered a relationship with Valerie Trierweiler, 47, a journalist. They have lived together since then but have not married and have no children together.
Trierweiler has said she undoubtedly will have to abandon journalism if Hollande is president. But asked about the protocol problems their unmarried status could raise, particularly during trips abroad, Hollande has said that is a question for him and Trierweiler — without providing an answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment