French Elections

It was a victory for the left in France this year with Franҫois Hollande winning the presidency and his party, the Socialist Party, did well in parliamentary elections. This left Nicholas Sarkozy to be the first President of France to lose their re-election bid in 30 years. The third candidate to make a big splash during the election was Marine LePen, the candidate for the National Front. The National Front is a far-right party, probably similar to the BNP here in the UK.

The Victorious Franҫois Hollande
Source: telegraph.co.uk

Presidential Election:

First Round:

Hollande (Socialist Party): 28.53%

Sarkozy (Union for a Popular Movement): 27.18%

LePen (National Front) 17.90%
Mélenchon (Left Front) 11.10%

Second Round:

Hollane: 51.64%

Sarkozy: 48.36%

Parliamentary Elections:

Socialist Party: 280 seats and 40.91% of the vote, a net increase of 94 seats

Union for a Popular Movement: 194 seats and 37.95% of the vote, a net decrease of 119 seats

The election came as a relief to many on the left throughout Europe. Many Europeans are fed up with the austerity induced recessions and the economic gloom that began five years ago. The left has largely been out of power throughout Europe since the financial crash.  Many Europeans would point to America which rejected austerity in favour of stimulus and is growing steadily and its economy is above its pre-crisis level. (At the time of writing I do not know if America has gone over the ‘fiscal cliff’). Hollande promised a super tax for the wealthy – 75% on incomes over €1 million – a lowering of the retirement age to 60 and the recreation of 60,000 public education jobs cut under Sarkozy. He also promised to give immigrants the right to vote after five years of legal residence and grant adoption and marriage rights to gay couples. This differed greatly from Sarkozy who outright opposed Hollande’s plans for gays and immigrants. In his first term Sarkozy had reformed universities and the retirement age, he had also significantly cut public sector employment. In a second term he promised to reduce immigration by 50% and threatened to leave the Schengen Area if certain demands were not met.  

One of the most notable figures in the election was the far-right Marine LePen, leader of the National Front. She tried to avoid some of the seriously extreme views her party had previously had by being less visibly xenophobic and anti-semetic. Some people have compared trying to change the BNP to UKIP. Nonetheless her views are still extreme, she believes that French citizens should get preferences jobs and services, in 19^th century protectionism, withdrawing from the Euro and EU as well as reducing legal immigration by 95% and re-instating the death penalty! I’m sad to say that she managed to get almost 18% of the vote in the first round. I believe her rise is mostly because of the economic crisis. As history shows us, in times of economic desperation people lurch to the extremes, just look at Germany circa 1929.