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    May 07, 2012

New French President to Face Many Challenges

   VOA News

   France has a new leader after Socialist challenger Francois Hollande
   beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential
   election.
   Final results Monday show Hollande won 51.6 percent of the vote to
   Sarkozy's 48.4 percent in Sunday's runoff election. French media say
   the outgoing president will officially hand over power on May 15.
   The vote reflected citizens' disapproval of the country's spending cuts
   and high unemployment. The outgoing president said he takes
   responsibility for the election loss.
   Hollande opposes many of the tough economic austerity measures in
   France. He will be the first left-wing French leader in almost 20
   years.
   Mr. Hollande is regarded as a mild-mannered career politician. He has
   promised to move quickly to implement a traditional socialist
   tax-and-spend program with higher taxes on the rich to help finance
   increased state spending.
   He also is expected to try to renegotiate European Union-imposed
   austerity measures.
   U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned his congratulations to Hollande
   Sunday and invited him to the White House before the G-8 and NATO
   summits later this month.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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