Fresh start for France will affect all of Europe

With a small margin of victory, Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party edged out the incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy in Sunday’s run-off presidential election in France. After the close-run contest, the newly elected president has a long list of must-do policies for France over the next five years.

First of all, he has to assure the French people he will lead France into economic recovery and new prosperity. After all, he was given the public’s vote of confidence on the promise that he will help the less-fortunate and that all French people will benefit from his government’s policies. 

At the Place de la Bastille, he affirmed that he is the president of the young. As such, he has to move quickly now to generate new jobs to decrease high employment among the youth. That is easier said than done, of course. Secondly, he must also calm his European Union colleagues about his new economic plans. He will look to move away from the austerity measures that are the financial framework in place all over Europe now. Hollande believes that there are better ways to get the economy going and reduce the debt crisis. Finally, France has to look East instead of West, and not focus on a trans- Atlantic outlook as did his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.

The first few months in office will be crucial as Hollande grapples with the pivotal economic problems and establishes a rapport with other EU leaders. As the first socialist president since 1995, he will need to do a lot of work to win conservative friends within the EU and around the world. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron should be the new leader’s top priority. Franco-German ties are a pillar of EU stability, as are Franco-British ties across the English Channel. His pledge for financial stimuli and an end to severe austerity cuts run counter to these two other leaders. He will need all the diplomatic tools available to win their confidence. 

Now that he has won the presidency, he must also move beyond France. How he can reconcile French desires with the broader EU commitment remains to be seen.

It is hoped that France will pay more attention to other regions from now on, as Sakorzy’s main focus was on the US. Under his presidency, France’s relations with the US were at their strongest for years, and both countries worked together to heighten the profile of Nato in troubled regions of the world. They both backed the Nato military intervention in Libya and in maintaining the armed forces’ level in Afghanistan. However, Hollande wants an earlier troop pullout from Afghanistan.

Hollande knows full well that it will be difficult to tackle all the problems that France is facing now, especially on the economic front. He has to learn from other world leaders, who have made similar pledges for change, but, in the end, have failed to deliver. Therefore, he has to be pragmatic and resilient and make difficult decisions at the right time. More than anything, France’s wellbeing will have an impact on Europe and many other places.