He said he would push ahead with his pledge to refocus EU fiscal efforts from austerity to "growth". "Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option," he said. Mr Hollande has called for a renegotiation of a hard-won European treaty on budget discipline championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mr Sarkozy.
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.
TYWKIWDBI gets several thousand visits/month from readers in France (graphic embedded at right). I'd like to hear your comments re this development. I've seen commentary from business journals and political journals. Just the word "socialist" is setting off alarm bells among certain American persons and groups.
Well, most of the people I know (I'm from Paris), are a happy of the election results, but not mainly because of the man elected, but because of the result: Nicolas Sarkozy is finally housted out of Office. So for most leftist and disappointed rightist, Hollande is the lesser evil...
ReplyDeleteBut he seems inclined to put Education in its right state again (Sarkozy's reforms and budget restrictions were incredibly harsh on education), and if he does this, that will be one very food point for him!
In France the parti socialiste is the second big parti but has nothing to do more with socialism, the name is just an héritage, somewhere romantic.
ReplyDeleteThe left hand partis usully mildly sweep from left to right as they experiment power. That was the case for Parti Radical, before WW2, came from Radical Socialism and today the little remaining in considered as centrists.
So, I don't think american people - should I say friends, have to be afraid of François Hollande, he comes from the same big school as the others and work for the same banksters...
"he comes from the same big school as the others and work for the same banksters..."
DeleteSadly, I'll bet you're correct. Thanks for the insight.
Republicans have made the word 'socialism' very successfully a dirty word in American politics. In Europe, it means nothing else than left-of-center, or 'democrat' in American terms. It's funny that Republicans never used the word against Tony Blair, who was their big wartime buddy. He is from the UK Labour Party, i.e. a British socialist.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it should be pointed out that the European political center is far, far to the left of the US center of politics. How far? Well, conservative UK prime-minsters David Cameron is killing the UK with his austerity budget, that excluded one single area: The National Health Care system. So, here we have a pretty right-wing European PM, defending a position to the left of Obamacare. Similarly, Sarkozy, also right-wing, barely touched France's largely state-defined health care system.
As a Canadian, it always makes me roll my eyes how the word 'socialist' makes many Americans quake in terror. I don't know if it's the Republicans doing it, or Fox News, or whoever; but someone has made the American public terrified of a bogeyman. Get a grip, people - the world isn't going to come to an end just because a few countries kicked out their right-leaning rulers and replaced them with left-leaning ones.
DeleteAs a UK voter, many of us would argue with the idea that Tony Blair was a socialist, seeing as his policies were arguably a repackaging of Conservative politics. And while the austerity measures may be seen as not affecting the NHS, the current coalition has done their absolute level best to increase private interests in the publicly-funded NHS, effectively opening up a secondary market to the companies that stand to lose money thanks to Obama's attempt to move towards universal healthcare. The groundwork for this was provided as part of the previous Labour government.
DeleteIndeed - nuLabour was very much wearing the Socialist clothes in order to get into power. The Conservatives lately have been even further right, of course.
DeleteYou might be interested in this blogpost http://aproposfrance-usa.blogspot.fr/2012/05/new-french-president-reasons-he-won-and.html (and come to think of it, in the rest of the blog too) that dispels a few common misconceptions.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of many presidents and ministers coming from the same school, let it be said that it is not as outrageous as it can seem at first: it is a school that was explicitely set up *for the purpose* of churning out statesmen. The ENA means National School of administration. It can be objected to on a variety of grounds but it is not the "old boys club" described in some US universities. The students are recruted by stringent exams and not only do they have no fees to pay, but they're given a salary as civil servants in training. After that they have an obligation to work in the state apparatus.
My dad used to tell me that the problem of the ENA system is that most of the elite civil servants of a generation had the same training and were exposed to the same economic theories, and so their political leanings affect their policies far less in fact than does what they were taught. He often added something about it explaining why all the economic notions of statesmen were not only the same, but also utterly out of date...
Thanks for that link, Abie.
DeleteI don't know the details of the guy, but I'm pretty thrilled at the news. The counter-productive austerity fanatacism is destroying the EU and it's great that people are revolting against it.
ReplyDeleteViva la rationality!
I don't know the details of the guy, but I'm pretty thrilled at the news. The counter-productive austerity fanatacism is destroying the EU and it's great that people are revolting against it.
ReplyDeleteViva la rationality!
Damn right. Merkel is preaching austerity while his country grows 3% a year, the is no austerity whatsoever and the banks are profiting insanely on the debt of the periferic countries. My country started to grow exactly because this kind of measures shoved down our throats by the IMF and the World Bank started being rejected.
DeleteI'll write what I wrote on Zero Hedge:
ReplyDelete1)It was an antisarkozy vote
2)I hope Ill bee pleasantly surprise but I prepare for the worst
3)Hollande "true believers" and new converts will be sorely disappointed, as sarkozy disappointed many people when faced with the reality of the economy.
4) Both Sarkozy AND Holland basically had the same program and voted for the same policies Both are fanatical EU supporters who care for nothing but more power.
5) In France unemployment went from conjunctural to structural under François Mitterrand in the 80's, the man Holland strive to be, might I add.
That said, François Holland has many qualities of his own, just like any man who manages to rise that high.
Many thanks and congratulations Minnesotastan, this really amazing work!
Thanks, anonymous. What would worry me about his proposals is the promise to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60. I think this is what Greek politicians did, and if noone makes financial adjustments for the future changes, then some years down the road more severe imbalances may occur.
DeleteOh don't worry. Holland claims he will lower the retirement age back to 60, but the Socialists are in fact only too happy Sarkozy put it at 62 year old, so they don't have to do it themselves and be "the good cop".
DeleteThe thing is the good cop and the bad cop want the same thing. Usually to get you to talk but here we're talking about money... which may sometimes be one and the same.
The real long term consequence of another socialist president is in 5 year France may elect a far right candidate. Election for the French congress take place in about 5 weeks and the Front national intends to have as many seats as possible.
I've been in Paris since the beginning of February and I had the opportunity to see the entire public campaign unfold for each candidate - every single on of them, regardless of their policies, has had fascist, socialist...communist, I believe, I can't remember exactly - or some similar commentary graffitied one them. I agree that it was an anti-Sarkozy vote, but now I think Hollande is over-reacting in an attempt to appear as different from Sarkozy as possible.. and it's not necessarily a good thing. According to my professor, Hollande was determined that he would be allowed to take public transit (as a direct contrast to Sarkozy's lavish transport costs), which is an absolutely insane idea considering that once you factor in added security, transit disruptions and other costs, that would cost significantly more than reasonable private transport would, and would present a serious imposition on every single location he visited. So I don't know what's in store, but I do hope Hollande doesn't end up doing stupid things just to demonstrate to the people that he's not like his predecessor.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny that the reactions, almost unanimously, of the people I know who didn't vote for Hollande (the majority of the people I know) are the *exact* same reactions as Americans (repubs) when Obama was elected. Same quotes, issues and all!
ReplyDelete