Today challenger Francois Hollande unseated incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy with 52 percent of the vote, in doing so becoming the second Socialist president in France’s history.
Sarkozy, who conceded defeat late Sunday, thanked the French people for his five years as leader of the country, adding:
From the bottom of my heart I want France to succeed with the challenges it faces. It is something much greater than us; France. This evening we must think exclusively of France….let us have a happy France, that does not bear any hatred, a France does not give up, an open France, a France that does not consider his opponent as an enemy… A France that knows that life is made of success and defeat.
The Financial Times reports on Hollande’s campaign promises that won over the hearts of the French:
Mr Hollande campaigned on promises of higher taxes on business and top earners, subsidies for companies taking on younger and older workers, a partial reversal of the rise in the retirement age to 62, and a balanced budget by 2017.
While Hollande’s supporters were “jubilant” to have elected the first Socialist president since Mitterrand was in office 17 years ago, the crowd that had gathered to with Sarkozy ended their evening by singing La Marseillaise:
Arise children of the fatherland
The day of glory has arrived
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody standard is raised
Listen to the sound in the fields
The howling of these fearsome soldiers
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of your sons and consorts
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Lenin supposedly said that capitalists would sell him the ropes with which they’d be hung. Not only that: too many voters demand the yokes with which they’ll be enslaved.
This is actually very, very bad.
Notice that Hollande promised these three things: higher taxes on businesses and top earners, a (partial) reversal of the higher retirement age and a balanced budget by 2017.
The three things are mutually exclusive.
By raising taxes on businesses and top earners, he will drive wealth out of France and into places like Germany and Switzerland, making balancing France’s budget all but impossible.
Partial repeal of the raised retirement age is similarly going to be budget-busting.
I wonder exactly how long it will take for France’s economy to stall out and start looking like Spain’s. My guess is you’ll start seeing that stall in tomorrow’s FTSE 100 and DAX indexes crashing as the capitalists FLEE the markets for safe havens like the US Bond market and US Treasuries.
Any bets on if President Hollande will start making noises about leaving the Euro and reinstating the Franc (in the interest of French nationalism, of course), especially as they only JUST became non-exchangeable on February 19th of this year.
Correct on all points. He’s promising a totally untenable society.
Absolutely correct. I will mention one point that some Americans may not understand. Capital is in fact more mobile in France than in the US. Aside from the detail that as long as the Eurozone holds together, it can be shifted from EU country to EU country at the speed of light; there is the fact that unlike the US, if a French national derives his income from another country he does not pay French taxes on it. Americans are used to the idea [because we are the only country to do so] that the government has the right to tax your income from anywhere in the world.
Euro notes are marked with a registration letter showing what country issued them. Presumably, if a country leaves the Eurozone, their Euro notes will be devalued or made totally worthless. Europeans, based on their history, are more inclined to have a stash of actual banknotes or precious metals hidden away rather than trust banks in hard times. For years, individuals doing so have avoided the prefix letters Y, V, and S [Greece, Spain, and Italy] and preferred X and U [Germany and France] on the theory that Germany and France will stand by the Euros that they themselves issue and that they will remain convertible for a while. I think U just migrated to the other list.
Subotai Bahadur
This is actually very, very bad.
Agreed. But it could be good for our upcoming election. With the flight of capital and low possibility of ECB liquidity pumping, we might see a real-time picture of socialist implosion. Americans need a quick course to undo years of socialist indoctrination in gov schools and the MSM.
Well, it wasn’t quite as bad as I expected it to be, but the DAX ended up flat after dropping 2% initially and recovering, but the FTSE was down 2%, dropping steadily all day long.
Treasuries did rise, pushing the yield down from 1.88% to 1.86 percent (prices of treasuries and yields move in opposite directions).
And now France jumps off the cliff. Europe is in, deep, deep trouble. Should be interesting to see how the media spins the numerous french failures in the coming years.
When it seemed likely Hollande would win last week, I heard an analyst say that if he did win the election and become president he’ll have no choice but to adopt more moderate positions. In other words, like most politiicians he was lying to get elected. We’ll see.
They will live through their “Obama-nation” trial, Lord willing. And, yes, they have La Marseillaise to encourage them. It has been helpful in the past. 😀
Charming words in La Marseillaise. And there are people in the US who want to replace our national anthem because they think it glorifies war.
La Marseillaise is one of the more blood-thirsty of national anthems.
Still, I get misty when I see that scene in “Casablanca” where they play it.
Always wondered about that…
…on the bright side, at least Tacky-O will never have to be photographed with Carla Bruni ever again!
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01716/bruni_1716788c.jpg
That picture is in the dictionary.
Next to “Stink-eye”.
That picture is an absolute hoot. I am moved to pity when I consider what 0’s private, married life must be like. Anytime anybody wants to trash him about playing so much golf, all 0 needs to do is show that picture. How would you like to wake up to face her?
Tant pis.
ABBA should be singing Waterloo.
“higher taxes on business and top earners, subsidies for companies taking on younger and older workers, a partial reversal of the rise in the retirement age to 62, and a balanced budget by 2017”
Which of these four things doesn’t belong? Anyone? Bueller?
Sounds like California to me.
France is already teetering on the brink of fiscal disaster and double-dip recession; pushing any of the Socialist agenda will hasten the coming crash. Germany has lost its only strong partner for Euro-sanity.
Mr. Justice Goldberg declared that the Constitution of the United States “is not a suicide pact.” Voters in France and Greece are demonstrating that the EU, in contrast, IS a suicide pact.
I wonder how Hollande feels about Netanyahu? Or about Obama?
The dynamic that brought socialists to power in France is not so cut and dried as most media would have us believe. True, Sarkozy got the “NO-zies” and is gone, but Le Pen sealed a place for her rightists, refused to back Sarkozy, and opened the door for Hollande. Le Pen will attempt to take Sarkozy’s followers under her wing in June and invade parliament. Meanwhile, Hollande will destroy France”s economy with his childish (socialist) plans, she will pick up the pieces in short order. Complicated times ahead for France. Regardless, their economy is now toast. C’est la vie. Bonsoir, French economy (please don’t take mine with you!)
The news has been reporting that Sarkozy is the 11th euro zone leader to be swept from office since the start of the financial crisis, largely because of austerity measures that cut government spending and entitlement benefits…
The New York Times as I posted weeks ago on the Tip Line are declaring countries with economies like China’s Market Socialism, state capitalism from an authoritarian centrally planned government is all the rage, that such economies are preferred by populist uprising… A/K/A OWS
#FAIL
Another country which will soon come begging for a bailout. The French have to get some sort of work ethic or their country will die. You cannot have that many weeks of paid vacation, retire at a ridiculously young age and receive a generous pension until you die, and still have a country not deep in debt. Remember the outrage when Disneyland opened in France and the employees were expected to work? That mindset is deeply ingrained, and that is how Hollande just won even when the outcome of socialism is apparent in countries all over Europe, such as in Spain.
And there goes Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland and anyone else that Sarko and Merkel unsuccesfully impose some austerity on.
I fear a depression is now a real possibility.
I think you’re right. I suspect both Europe and the US are in recession now, but it will take a few more months before the lying statisticians are unable to hide it anymore. A later report is better, actually, because it will be closer to election time. Nothing like a double-dip on the minds of voters!
[…] Wins in France: France chooses socialism over Sarkozy (via Legal […]
Move over -you stupid mummies.. You are stiffed.
The Curse of Ghaddaffi strikes again.
Bertolusci Sarkozy gone . Cameron reeling …..
“Greece 2”, film noir.