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Out with the old (Sarkozy) and in with the new (Hollande)

Not surprisingly, French President Sarkozy has been swept from office.    His actions and behaviour almost invited it.   Now it is going to be Socialist candidate Francois Hollande.   

"To the very end, President Nicolas Sarkozy had sought to make the world believe he could still win and that it would be an extremely tight race. He was wrong. For the second time in the history of the Fifth Republic, the French voted a Socialist Party candidate into the country's highest office. The last time that happened was in 1981, when François Mitterrand became president.

François Hollande's victory is first and foremost a political settling of scores with Sarkozy. When he began his term five years ago, Sarkozy enjoyed a public approval rating of more than 60 percent, but by the end he had become the most unpopular president in the Fifth Republic, which began in 1958 with a constitutional reform that greatly strengthened the role of the president.
Sarkozy's lack of popularity has in large part been the product of the economic crisis that has already cost nine other European leaders their jobs. But the rejection of Sarkozy goes deeper: Many French feel that Sarkozy profaned the office, that he did not bring sufficient dignity, that he was a parvenu who often confused himself with the state and acted like a modern-day Napoleon. In the end, even in the conservative camp, there were many who outright loathed him. Hollande, in short, was propelled into the top office on the strength of the French desire to be rid of the incumbent. Sarkozy and the French -- a jilted love that ended in hate.

After having such an abnormal president, the French are now yearning for a more normal one -- and that is precisely what Hollande promises. Not long ago, no one would have entrusted the office to Hollande. He was considered little more than a joker. Left-wing populist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon even disparaged him as a "pedal-boat captain" to general amusement. After all, he was only the Socialists' second choice, picked after former favorite Dominique Strauss-Kahn fell from grace in the wake of his sex scandals.
But in the course of this election campaign, Hollande succeeded in convincing a majority of French that he had the right stuff to be president. He slowly developed a presidential aura and, in speeches, he placed himself in the same category as François Mitterrand. And finally, in last week's debate against Sarkozy, he crowned himself, starting 16 straight sentences with "I, as president...."

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