Hollande defeated Sarkozy and was elected President of France

Hollande defeated Sarkozy and was elected President of France. On May 7, the second round of voting in the French presidential election ended. Socialist Party candidate Hollande defeated Sarkozy and was elected to the new term...

The second round of voting in the French presidential election started at 8 a.m. on the 6th (14:00 Beijing time) in mainland France. Exit survey results released by multiple French polling agencies at 20:00 that night showed that Socialist Party candidate Hollande won 51.8% to 51.9% of the valid votes in the second round of presidential election voting, defeating current President Sarkozy. Mitbbs.com

A presidential election with the least suspense sent a politician without any administrative experience, the left-wing Socialist Party presidential candidate Hollande, to the Elysee Palace. This was a major earthquake in French political life and a "comeback" for the left wing after losing three consecutive presidential elections since Mitterrand was elected in 1981. Impressively, the left has won almost every election in France since 2007. The left wing currently controls the French presidential palace, the Senate, and 21 local governments in 22 regions in mainland France. The legislative elections to be held in June will most likely enable the Socialist Party to finally "capture" the National Assembly. In this way, France in 2012 will be the most "pink" since the founding of the Fifth Republic, with the left basically controlling all national and local political power in France, including legislative power. Mitbbs.com

The transfer of power will take place in a few days Mitbbs.com

Theoretically, the French Constitutional Committee will officially announce Hollande's election from May 8th to 10th. Sarkozy, who subsequently lost the election, will hand over power to Hollande on the 15th at the latest. The most important thing in the handover was the handover of the nuclear button code at the "Jupiter" underground nuclear strategic weapons command center in the Elysee Palace. The President of France is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the only Frenchman with the authority to initiate nuclear war. Mitbbs.com The "Jupiter" nuclear command center was built in 1969 and is the core of France's nuclear forces. Here, the president can launch a nuclear attack through a nuclear code that only he knows. During his visit, there was a "codebox to activate nuclear weapons" directly connected to this center. The most core part of the transfer of presidential power is that the two presidents enter the "Jupiter" center to hand over nuclear codes alone. Beginning in 1987, the presidential identity authentication system needed to be updated at the same time as the nuclear code handover was carried out. After the outgoing president delivers the password to the new president, the new president will modify and save the password alone to ensure that only he knows it. At this point, the handover of nuclear weapons is over. Mitbbs.com The first thing the new president should do after the transfer of power is to appoint a new government. This will be an "interim government" whose main function is to preside over the legislative elections to be held on June 10. Only after a new majority party is elected in new legislative elections can the president actually appoint a majority prime minister to assist him in governing. Mitbbs.com It should be noted that Sarkozy was voted out of office after just one term, which was only the second time in the history of the French Fifth Republic. The last time was in 1981 when center-right d'Estaing was defeated by Mitterrand of the Socialist Party at the end of his first term as president. But at that time, Mitterrand was unprecedentedly powerful because he successfully formed a left-wing alliance between the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party; while the right-wing Chirac hoped that d'Estaing's failure would open the door for him to win the 1988 election, so he did not fully support him. Under attack from both sides, Destin only lost 48.24% to 51.76%. This time, Sarkozy lost to Hollande by about 4 percentage points, which proves that French voters generally abandon Sarkozy. Mitbbs.com

> Sarkozy’s commentary on the rights and wrongs of the past five years Mitbbs.com

It should be admitted that since Sarkozy came to power in 2007, despite repeated mistakes in governance and personal style, he has made considerable reforms in France's current economic system, which is increasingly difficult to adapt to the fierce competition of globalization. According to statistics, there are as many as 931 reform projects, including many reforms aimed at improving France's economic competitiveness such as retirement, unemployment, and the establishment of tax ceilings; it also includes reforms in many sensitive areas such as restrictions on immigration and restrictions on Islam (such as the ban on wearing headscarves in public). Judging from research on French society, some of these reforms have had positive effects, but more often have caused serious controversy and even divided public opinion. Judging from France's economic situation in the past five years, the effects of these reforms are extremely limited. Under Sarkozy, France's serious economic problems such as low economic growth, excessive foreign trade deficit, and excessive public debt have basically not been improved, and the purchasing power of the French people has also been on a downward trend. Mitbbs.com

Historians also admit that Sarkozy successfully made some beneficial political system reforms. For example, he presided over the amendment of the constitution so that the presidential term should not exceed two terms. This was an important progress. However, the positive effect of this reform was greatly diluted by other policies launched by Sarkozy that were widely criticized as "anti-democratic". The French media criticized Sarkozy personally for appointing the chairman of France Television. This was seen as a serious setback for French democracy. Mitbbs.com The most fundamental thing is that most of the "achievements" of Sarkozy's reforms have been completely washed away by his more controversial domestic and foreign policies and his personal governance style. The personal dislike of Sarkozy is often concentrated in various details of his life: when he came to power, he celebrated at the "Fugai Hotel" where the rich often go, he raised the president's salary by 140% soon after he came to power, he announced divorce and remarriage within a few months of coming to power, and other trivial matters in his personal life. The reason why French society was filled with "anti-Sarkozy sentiment" on the eve of the 2012 election was, of course, its domestic and foreign policies. If Sarkozy's internal right-wing fiscal policies (such as tax cuts for the rich) and some "quasi-racist" minority policies have aroused resentment among some left-wing voters, his comprehensive departure from Gaullism in foreign policy is the main reason for the criticism from some traditional right-wing figures in French political, intellectual and diplomatic circles. The principle of Gaullism is independent diplomacy. After Sarkozy came to power, he made a high-profile return to the NATO military command system and implemented a comprehensive pro-Israel policy in the Middle East, almost tilting to the United States. These policy mistakes further led to Sarkozy losing the support of most voters in France. Mitbbs.com

Hollande "catches ducks to the shelves" to study diplomacy Mitbbs.com When new President Hollande came to power, a series of international events followed: the most urgent ones were the G8 summit held at Camp David in the United States on May 18, the NATO summit held in Chicago on the 20th, the G20 summit held in Mexico on June 18. This will be Hollande’s first meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and of course the indispensable EU summit. As a foreign observer, in 2012 What surprised reporters most about the 2018 French election was that international issues were almost completely absent from the election. Throughout the campaign, France seemed like an island on earth. Even in the televised debate between the two candidates on May 2, international issues were rarely touched upon. Among them, "China" was mentioned only twice, and "United States": once! He only mentioned "Obama" three times when talking about troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Hollande has no time to "learn" to be president. Whether his limited understanding of international affairs will become an obstacle to his administration, especially in the early years of his administration, is a question commonly raised by observers here. Mitbbs.com The last question mark is the future "First Lady" of France. Hollande officially broke up with Royal, another famous female politician, during the 2007 presidential election after living together for nearly 30 years and raising four children. Hollande's current live-in girlfriend is TV journalist Valerie Rièweiler. Maybe his first state visit may come to China. There will also be an "international problem" in the protocol. Because in international diplomatic etiquette, the title of "First Housewife" does not exist. Will Hollande follow in the footsteps of Sarkozy and become the second French president to get married at the Elysee Palace?

On the evening of May 6, local time, current French President Sarkozy gave a speech at a post-election rally in Paris, admitting that he had lost to left-wing Socialist Party candidate Hollande in the second round of voting in the presidential election held that day. Mitbbs.com

Xinhuanet, Paris, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Nicolas Sarkozy, the current French president and presidential candidate of the right-wing Alliance for the Popular Movement, admitted on the evening of the 6th that he had lost to Francois Hollande, the candidate of the left-wing Socialist Party, in the second round of the presidential election held that day. Mitbbs.com

Sarkozy said at a rally of supporters in Paris that night that Hollande was the new president of France and should be respected. French voters made their choice between "democracy and republic" that day, and he himself will bear full responsibility for the election failure. He had spoken to Hollande on the phone that night to congratulate him on his election. But Hollande will face severe tests, for which he wishes the new president good luck. Mitbbs.com

Exit poll results released by multiple French polling agencies on the evening of the 6th showed that Hollande won 52% to 53.3% of the valid votes in the second round of the presidential election. He defeated Sarkozy and was a foregone conclusion. In the first round of voting held on April 22, Hollande and Sarkozy received 28.63% and 27.18% of the valid votes respectively, leading the other eight candidates and entering the second round. Mitbbs.com