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He's reviled. He pledged one thing and did another. He serves wealth and power alone. He deplores worker rights. He supports reduced labor costs and layoffs. During his tenure, over 1.4 million lost jobs. Many were high-paying ones.
Hollande's victory reflected anti-Sarkozy sentiment. Voters saw little difference between them. Austerity remains policy. Rhetoric signaled otherwise. Reality will arrive when a new "dimension of growth, jobs, prosperity, and (better) future" becomes same old same old.
Hollande's fiscal program is corporate friendly. Constrained under Eurozone rules, he has little choice. Structural reforms will continue. Rhetoric is anti-austerity but policy affirms it.
Expect more social cuts, lost jobs, and other right-wing measures. Despite saying French troops will leave Afghanistan this year, France will stay partnered with imperial Washington.
Franco/German relations won't change. Renegotiating austerity reflects continuity, not new direction policies. German Foreign Secretary Guido Westerwelle said:
"We will work together for a European growth pact on Sunday....We must add a new impulsion for growth, which requires structural reforms."
In other words, expect greater harshness. Voters demand policies helping them. Neither candidate aroused enthusiasm. Sarkozy's unpopularity put Hollande 24 points up initially. It dwindled to a narrow Sunday victory.
If campaigning continued much longer, he could have lost. On June 10 and 17, legislative elections follow. Results won't turn austerity into worker-friendly populism.
French Voters faced a Hobson's choice. They were damned whichever way they went. National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen called both candidates "political Siamese twins." She voted "blank."
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