After 17 years of conservative governments, the triumph of the Socialist Party (SP) candidate Francois Hollande in the presidential elections is widely considered a political change in France with European rammifications.
Hollande won Sunday’s election with 51,67 percent of the votes, compared to 48,33 of his rival Nicolas Sarkozy, according to data provided by the Ministry of Interior, after counting 99 percent of the ballots.
In his first speech to the nation, from the town of Tulle, the newly elected president committed to work for a European Union (EU) where economic growth, employment and prosperity prevail.
“Europe is watching us. Austerity can not be a fatality”, said Hollande who has stated his willingness to renegotiate the treaty of fiscal stringency adopted in March this year by 25 of the 27 EU countries.
At a time of popular discontent in the region by welfare cuts and the loss of jobs, the president-elect considers it necessary to counterbalance the austerity policies.
“That will be my mission, to give European construction a new dimension. And I’ll tell that as soon as possible to the European and German partners”, he said.
The elected president also called for implementing a tax on financial transactions, create Eurobonds to finance infrastructure and provide a new role for the European Central Bank, among other projects to stimulate economic development.
The victory of the Socialist Party candidate and the hope that this election marks a change in the direction of the block taking into account the economic turbulence in the eurozone, was noted by several media in the continent.
For the French newspaper Liberation, the triumph of Hollande recalls the victory won by Francois Mitterrand in 1981, and revives images that seemed doomed to the history books.
While Patrick Apel-Muller, of L’ Humanite finds that this success is indicative of a strong desire for change.
The United Kingdom newspaper The Independent said that the victory of the Socialist Party candidate against Sarkozy announces a change in the way Europe faces the crisis.
Hollande triumphs against Sarkozy’s austerity policy, titled the conservative newspaper The Times, while Portugal’s Jornal de Negocios expressed the hope to transform the legacy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and take a different approach to the crisis.
In Italy, the daily La Stampa reflected the triumph of the Socialist Party in the polls with an article titled: Paris changes and Europe changes.
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