Daniel Nuncio

A new France?

Rien ne peut faire bien dans un systme politique dans lequel les mots en contradiction avec les faits. Napolon.

It has been said in Europe all civilised people have to spiritual homelands, France and their own. This could seem exaggerated. France has played a fundamental role in the European civilization though. French people may look a hard, war-like and selfish town; though they share an outstanding performance for elegancy, a pleasure for good life that involves gastronomy, wines and a magnificence passion for new ideas. Their intellectual and artistic attainments have influenced the rest of their peers endlessly. For centuries it was a kingdom, then a centre of colonial empire to end up in the former republic. Nowadays France is stringing along to a more integrated nation, being significant within the European Union, a complex community that has been coping with troubles since 2010. A sort of change is taking place in Europe though. After the invariable and common outlook presented lately, it has started precisely in France, today, the republic has made a desperate choice, a new face, the socialist Francois Hollande who has overcome his peer Nicolas Sarkozy in the latter presidential elections. He has introduced himself as the President for all especially for the young people, declaring he is extremely proud of the France that has been built, the France of diversity, besides thanking all the people who trusted him. With this, they are twelve changes that have occurred in Europe since 2010, when the economic and financial crisis began to affect the euro area and the other countries of the European Union. Le changement, cest maintenant (the change is now) is precisely Hollandes cover letter arguing he is not only representing the leftists but all the republicans, humanists, and those who share a sense of value. There is no doubt people ask for a change, a new hope for lhexagon and the facts demonstrate this has not only been requested in France but in the entire Europe as well who is fed up for the late unstable environment.

Francois Hollande, the second socialist president in fifty years, has affirmed in his first speech as the victor of this contest, his priority of recovering the French 1

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A new France?

economy and reducing its deficit while retaining the Gallic model based on strong social protection. The future president also mentioned that his government will fight for strong reduction of fiscal deficit that France has and the preservation of the social model for ensuring access to all the same services. In his own words "I'm now mobilised for change. My duty is to serve the Republic, France." There is only one France, meeting the same fate. No child of the Republic shall be put aside; the promise of success will be honored as he has argued in this speech.

The campaign of the politician insisted that the five years of ruling will be chaired by the respect of values, equality, educational priority and the environment and oriented towards the benefit and enjoyment of "youth" in France. He claimed his change involves not only France but Europe in general where people expect to overthrow austerity. As for Europe, of which France is one of the major economies, Hollande will work for "the reorientation of Europe for jobs, growth and future" arguing that he will address his plans for the old continent "first with Germany.

Hollande says fiscal discipline must be accompanied by stimulation of the economy and said it wants to renegotiate the pact to include tax policies to encourage growth. In its program is contemplated more taxes to the wealthiest citizens, emphasizing job creation for young people and "unite" the French in a government of "justice." (Informador, 2012)

France, second engine of the Eurozone after Germany, was marked by the financial crisis which severely punishes countries like Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal, and issues such as immigration and border security, issues that caused suspicion in some members of the bloc. People are yelling mostly in France due to the weak growth presented in the country, in addition to a high unemployment rate, these among other personal things, cost Sarkozy his lost. (CNN, 2012)

Sarkozy goes to swell the list of political victims of the European crisis, which include the Spanish Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Portuguese Jose Socrates, Britain's Gordon Brown, who did pay voters at the polls the austerity policy. They are joined by Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and Greek Giorgos Papandreou, forced to resign under pressure from the European Union. 2

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A new France?

On the other side, elections have not only taken place in France but in Germany and Greece as well, countries at different circumstances, in terms of economics. As Mohamed A. El-Arian has argued (2012) Much will be written about these elections, and rightly so as they could well mark a further evolution in Europe's regional integration efforts. They unambiguously show that the electorate is angry and has lost confidence in the ability of traditional politicians to solve the region's crisis. In fact, people is now turning into new alternatives yielding undoubtedly to a more complex scope for Europe, the worlds largest economic area.

People is now emerging with the desire of getting Europe back to what it used to be, In Greece, exit polls suggest that the combination of the two usually dominant parties failed to secure even 50 percent of the votes. And in Germany, the ruling coalition seems to have experienced another setback. Political change in France, with the victory of Hollande, represents a quantum leap from the weight that this country has in shaping EU policies, through the so called Franco-German axis.

In these two years, voters have punished the party in power, regardless of ideological affiliation, but in some countries there has been a rise of the extreme right, nationalist principles, antieuropean, protectionist and xenophobic (Belgium,

Netherlands and Finland). (EFE, 2012)

Europe's election results sound an alarm for European integration and, consequently, the wellbeing of both the region and the global economy. Let us hope that the inevitable short-term volatility is a precursor to a more decisive effort to deal with the continent's festering problems.

Daniel Nuncio Sources

A new France?

CNN. (2012, May 4). Francia y Grecia van a las urnas. Retrieved May 6, 2012, from http://www.cnnexpansion.com/economia/2012/05/04/au-revoir-merkozy EFE. (2012, May 6). Francia: La crisis europea acaba tambin con Sarkozy. Retrieved May 6, 2012, from http://www.analitica.com/va/economia/opinion/6426100.asp El-Erian, M. A. (2012, May 5). European Elections Complicate Outlook. Retrieved May 6, 2012, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mohamed-a-elerian/europeanelections-compli_b_1491044.html Informador, E. (2012, May 6). Hollande, elegido presidente de Francia segn sondeos. Retrieved May 6, 2012, from http://www.informador.com.mx/internacional/2012/374320/6/hollande-elegidopresidente-de-francia-segun-sondeos.htm