(Reuters) – Socialist Francois Hollande had a sweeping victory in France’s presidential election on Sunday and gave a promise to begin a pushback against German-led austerity policies.
Hollande had the victory over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy by 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent with 83 percent of votes counted. The centre-left came back to government in Paris after a decade in opposition.
The president-elect in his victory speech at his constituency of Tulle in central France said that the entire European continent is watching France at that point of time.
This victory comes as a punishment for Sarkozy, who failed to rein in 10-percent unemployment. He was also the 11th euro zone leader in succession who had to be swept away from power since the currency bloc’s debt crisis began in 2009. Sarkozy also earned a bad name and immense criticism for the way he led his personal life.
Sarkozy who conceded defeat within 20 minutes of polls closing announced that he bore the full responsibility of the defeat and indicated that he planned to withdraw from frontline politics. He also said that he had personally telephoned Hollande wishing him all the luck to tide over the country in trying times.
Hollande supporters were jubilant after the victory and celebrated outside Socialist Party headquarters from where they went to Paris’ Bastille square. It was the same place where revellers had danced the night away in 1981 when Francois Mitterrand had won as the only other previous directly elected Socialist president.
With Sarkozy’s eviction, the French were finally rid of the arrogant and egotistical former president after just a single term in office along with his even more irritating supermodel wife, who was Italian by birth. The former president and his wife had earned a considerable amount of wrath from the French public for their irrational behaviour that was so not expected from the French president.
And surprisingly he is one such rare president who would not be much mourned by the public after he leaves his office. All he had made during his tenure were empty promises, which he completely failed to deliver along with his actions that were condemned by the public at large.
Immediately after he was elected as the French president, he started off his celebrations with his super rich supporters at one of Paris’s most expensive restaurants and thereby alienating the French public at large. His personal celebrations did not end there. He went on to party with on the big yacht of a billionaire businessman.
During his tenure instead of improving the financial condition of his country at large he gave himself a 140 per cent pay rise, taking his annual salary above £300,000. Surprisingly he paid £660 per day on fresh flowers from the state funds.
Along with his third wife, model turned pop star Carla Bruni, the couple became the subject for the celebrity magazines for all the wrong reasons, much to the distaste of the conservative French public. What was shockingly disgusting was his elderly father published his memoir where he described himself as a man who is addicted to sex and he started off when he was all of 11 after he could manage to get hold of his nanny for the act.
Thus happily the French public voted against Sarkozy after he had shamed the office of the French president considerably.
Now all eyes are set on Hollande to see how he makes the best of his stay at the esteemed Elysee Palace.
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