Sarkozout!

[Scooter]

Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency

Socialist Francois Hollande has been elected as France's new president.

He got about 52% of votes in Sunday's run-off, according to early projections, against 48% for centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy has admitted defeat, saying: "Francois Hollande is the president of France and he must be respected."

Analysts say the vote has wide implications for the whole eurozone. Mr Hollande has vowed to rework a deal on government debt in member countries.

Exuberant Hollande supporters have already converged on Place de la Bastille in Paris - a traditional rallying point of the Left - to celebrate.

Mr Hollande capitalised on France's economic woes and President Sarkozy's unpopularity.

The socialist candidate has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m euros a year.

He wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.

Mr Hollande has also called for a renegotiation of a hard-won European treaty on budget discipline championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mr Sarkozy.

In his concession speech, Mr Sarkozy told stunned supporters that he was "taking responsibility for defeat".

Hinting about future, he said: "My place will no longer be the same. My involvement in the life of my country will now be different."

During the campaign, he said he would leave politics if he lost the election.

Mr Sarkozy, who has been in office since 2007, had promised to reduce France's large budget deficit through spending cuts.

It is only the second time an incumbent president has failed to win re-election since the start of France's Fifth Republic in 1958.

The last was Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who lost to socialist Francois Mitterrand in 1981. Mr Mitterrand had two terms in office until 1995.

The new president is expected to be inaugurated later this month.

A parliamentary election is due in June.

He had aspirations to become the next DeGaulle. So much for that.

[BoSoxGal]

Great thread title!

[MajGenl.Meade]

La Hollandaise - English lyrics

Arise children of the fatherland
The day of Sarkozy is erased
Behold the rich
Francois is not fazed
Listen to the sound in the schools
The howling of a billion new teachers
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of capitalists and consorts

To arms old buggers
Form your battalions
March, march
Let bankers blood
Water our furrows

etc. ad nauseam

[rubato]

Center-right goes to center- left.

W/o the apeshit-stupid tranche we have in the Republicans.

Coming to you from Bayeaux par iphone.

Yrs,
Rubato

[Lord Jim]

Congratulations to Mr. Hollandaise....

The socialist candidate has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m euros a year. (75% I understand...)

He wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.

And while he's about it, he's going to repeal the law of supply and demand, command the tide to stay out, and have us all live on a Big Rock Candy Mountain...

(Okay, I made that last bit up, but you get my point....)

[Lord Jim]

The Socialists always promise to repeal the law of supply and demand....

It never works.....

[Gob]

Some wealthy French citizens may be preparing to swap croissants for bacon and eggs with a move to London if Socialist candidate Francois Hollande becomes the next president of France.
In the run up to the election Hollande has proposed more tax on annual incomes over one million euros.

James Pace, head of the Kensington branch of estate agency Knight Frank, explained what he is seeing: “Whilst the rest of Europe has seen interest drop by 10 percent, we’ve seen French interest increase by about 30 percent. This has predominantly been at the top end of the market, at the £5 million plus [price level], so it’s obviously interest from people who are looking to move here and live here, as opposed to people who are just looking to invest in smaller rental investments.”

Hollande looks likely to win and is leading current President Nicolas Sarkozy in the polls.

“Mr Hollande proposes to set up a new tax rate of 75 percent on incomes exceeding one million euros. These high taxes may lead some people who have not considered leaving the country yet to leave the country,” said Laurent Leclercq, a tax specialist at Fidal.

There are already around 300,000 French citizens living in England’s capital, but some of those who decide to leave France if Hollande wins may go to Brussels or Switzerland instead.

http://www.euronews.com/2012/04/30/weal ... to-london/

[MajGenl.Meade]

It'll be Brussels if les frogs learn about the tax on pasties!

[Lord Jim]

I'm actually very happy to see this...

It's very likely that we're going to see a whole wave of irresponsible leftist governments brought to power across Europe...

Another "I command the tide to go out" government looks to be elected in Greece next week...

This will mean that the US, and the dollar, will remain the strongest, most reliable global currency...

Not because we've done such a great job with our economy...

But because we've done a marginally better job than the idiots across The Pond...

[Gob]

I really hope Romney gets in!

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm actually very happy to see this...
This will mean that the US, and the dollar, will remain the strongest, most reliable global currency...

Oh I do hope so indeed. It is so much nicer when we send dollars from the USA to SA and get R8+/$1 rather than R6.4/$1 (which it did very briefly sink to last year). Petrol here has gone from R7.6/l when we got here - three years ago that was near enough $1 - to the current R12.28/l. So we need the dollar to beef itself up and start bench-pressing the Euro.

However, I do hope that Mr Zuma doesn't learn about this idea of "hiring 60,000 teachers". He'd see it as a way to increase the number of participants in COSATU, the trade union leg of the unholy alliance with ANC/CPSA - which will translate to more votes for the Showerhead president himself. Here in SA firing 60,000 teachers would be a good start but they'd probably can the good ones and keep the incompetent drunks who regularly look after our kids - oh sorry, who regularly go home early and close the schools.

But the French chappie, Boirdellaise, certainly has a good plan to ensure that no-one in France earns over 1 million euros per year. Shame they don't have any decent football players - and even less after he's through. Still there will be all those sprightly 60-62 year olds who won't need to work any more (or is that any less?) who might stand in the gaps.

Perhaps the last capitalist to leave will turn off the City of Lights

Meade

[dgs49]

This is a rather disturbing development and could happen everywhere that there is out-of-control spending of fiat money by irresponsible regimes. Including the U.S.

The populace - insulated from financial reality by decades of government profligate spending - decides that it does not want "austerity," which is nothing more than responsible government.

Liberals in government foster the idea that Government can continue to spend on the thousands of programs designed to purchase the votes of the people with non-existent tax dollars from SOMEONE ELSE (Never from YOU, my dear!).

The PIIGS are soon to follow: We don't want this. We refuse!

That is sure to solve the problem.