The French elections, which have brought Socialist Party Acandidate Francois Hollande to power, have reflected the surge around the world -- that of change. From the Arab Spring last year, the world has been riding on the winds of change. This has been reflected in Europe, too, in the last three years since the debt crisis hit, and France's Nicolas Sarkozy is the latest and 11th successive casualty among European leaders to fall from power following his failure to counter a record 10% unemployment rate; his protectionist, anti-immigrant and even anti-European inclinations; accompanied by what some would call his arrogance.
And so, for the second time in the country's history since the election and re-election of Francois Mitterand in 1981 and 1988, the French have voted in to power a Socialist president. Hollande has benefited from -- besides a currently running anti-Sarkozy sentiment in general -- his image as a mild-mannered politician who has focused on a programme of raising taxes especially on high earners, financing spending and controlling the public deficit and his call for social justice. But, while the resurge of the Left in France for the first time in 24 years comes almost as a revolution, Hollande himself is a leader seen by some as averse to reform, for example, in terms of his refusal to cut spending.
Right now, however, he is being welcomed by the nation as someone quite the opposite of what Sarkozy was; so much so, that where Sarkozy was considered a realist -- despite the fact that he was unable to tame reality -- Hollande is considered a dreamer. How the latter will tackle his new political reality, however, especially in terms of much of the continent's German-inspired call for austerity, remains to be seen.
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