Socialists Seize Power in France

The question is does that mean anything anymore other than socialism for bankers?

"France backtracks, lowers retirement age" Associated Press, June 07, 2012

PARIS - France’s new Socialist government moved Wednesday to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 years old for certain workers, bucking a global trend in a gesture to unions that critics say is a costly mistake.

President Francois Hollande, who won election last month on a wave of voter anger at austerity measures, proved Wednesday that his leftist campaign rhetoric was not just bluster....

Well, I hope it's more than just this crumb.

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Related: France unveils plan to cap executive pay

At least he is trying to keep his promises.

"Leftists lead in initial races for France’s Parliament; Election crucial to Hollande’s stimulus push" by Angela Charlton  |  Associated Press, June 11, 2012

PARIS - In a vote that is crucial to President Francois Hollande’s Socialist agenda, he needs leftists to take control of the lower house of Parliament, which is dominated by conservatives, to carry out his plans to redirect France’s economy....

Based on Sunday’s first round, polling agencies predict that Socialists and other leftists will take a majority of the 577 seats in the National Assembly in the decisive second round June 17. Socialists already control the Senate and lead most of France’s regions and its local governments.

Four polling agencies’ projections and early official results show diminished support for former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party across the country. They show growing support for the left, amid anger at cost-cutting austerity measures and reforms under Sarkozy seen by some as too friendly to the rich....

The polling agencies predicted that Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front party would only get up to three members of Parliament. That’s because of a stigma against a party whose founder -Marine’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen - has been convicted of racism and anti-Semitism....  

See: French Pen Pal

The result will affect whether Hollande can push his tax-the-rich, down-with-austerity agenda, and how much of a voice the far right will have in policies on immigration and Muslim practices.

Some voters are worried about handing so much power to the left, which generally favors higher government spending, at a time when Europe is struggling with huge debts that have forced Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and now Spain to seek international financial help.

Sarkozy’s campaign spokeswoman and a conservative parliamentary candidate, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, claimed that Hollande’s team is already spending so much that it is taking France towards “bankruptcy, a Spain-like, Greek-like situation.’’

The take a whack out of that military budget, and don't go into Syria.

Hollande has pledged to cut debt but won election by arguing to voters that economic recovery does not have to be all about belt-tightening, as Germany has argued. Hollande says governments should invest in stimulus to grow....

Voters casting ballots Sunday paid little attention to broader European concerns, focusing instead on local issues.

Paris voter Liliane Richard said she was voting for “my own ideas that I’m defending for daily life, for the youth. . . . It’s also very much about what’s happening outside.’’  

Then the French were not as selfish as the newspaper reporter was suggesting.

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"Socialists win French Parliamentary runoff; New president’s measures appear sure to gain passage" by Edward Cody  |  WASHINGTON POST, June 18, 2012

PARIS - President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party coasted to a comfortable majority in France’s parliamentary elections Sunday, virtually guaranteeing passage of his measures to reinvigorate the economy and help the poor more easily weather Europe’s debt crisis.

The Socialist victory, complementing Hollande’s election as president in May, avoided the deadlock that would have occurred had a blocking majority gone to the conservative Union for a Popular Movement, the coalition of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

France’s Socialists will have between 308 and 320 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly after Sunday’s second-round parliamentary elections, the TNS-Sofres Sopra Group, Ipsos, and CSA agencies estimated. The projections were based on actual vote counts in districts across the nation.

The total is well above the 289 the Socialists needed for a majority, and it means they will not have to rely on far-leftists who oppose some of Hollande’s pro-European policies to pass legislation.

Oh, so the OPPONENTS of the BAILOUT were MARGINALIZED, 'eh? 

I SMELL the STINK of ANOTHER RIGGED ELECTION!!

The new Parliament will lean well left: the Socialists and allied parties, the Greens, and the Leftist Front parties are estimated to have won 340 to 350 seats combined. Sarkozy’s UMP and its allies are estimated to have between 213 and 221 seats.  

But not that far to the le... sigh.

Reinforcing Hollande’s authority at home, the majority strengthens his hand in tense negotiations with Germany over ways to relieve pressure against the euro, the common currency of 17 European nations....

Socialists already control the Senate. In campaigning for the lower house, Hollande’s followers used the threat of a legislative standoff with the conservatives to motivate voters despite a lackluster campaign that touched only marginally on the pressing economic issues facing France and the European Union.

Oh, your campaigns are just like ours!

While deficits and debt were little dealt with, public attention focused heavily on a made-in-France contest between rival Socialists in La Rochelle that unfurled more like a soap opera than a political campaign.  

Oh, your campaigns are just like ours!

The winning candidate was Olivier Forlani, a Socialist dissident who had refused to step aside for the candidate named by the Socialist leadership in Paris.  

I like 'em already.

That candidate, who suffered from accusations she was “parachuted’’ into the Atlantic coast city, was Segolene Royal, who lived with Hollande for years and had four children with him before an unsuccessful run for president in 2007.  

Not married?

With opinion polls showing Royal in trouble despite her national stature, Hollande last week issued a message of support, violating a campaign pledge to remain above party politics. When she learned of the gesture, Valerie Trierweiler, a journalist who lives with Hollande and serves as the unmarried first lady, tweeted a message supporting Forlani. 

That's got to be an awkward situation at the end of the night.

Trierweiler’s message was widely interpreted as spiteful and inappropriate, including by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, and Royal said she was “wounded’’ and “bruised’’ when she heard of it. It was also taken as a display of friction in Hollande’s personal life, despite his pledge to introduce sobriety and reserve into the presidency. 

Oh, your campaigns are just like, well, you know!

Hollande has said his first priorities for the new Parliament include postponing a balanced budget until 2017, raising income taxes to 75 percent for those who earn more than $1.26 million a year, and hiring 60,000 teachers.

France is the second-largest economy in the eurozone and, along with powerhouse Germany, contributes heavily to bailouts for weaker nations and often drives EU-wide policy.  

And they are still all in, that is the important thing.

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Also see: 

‘Band of Brothers’ honored on D-day anniversary

Google, France in book scan deal

Next Day Update: 

"The long-divided Socialist Party now has an unprecedented lock on politics in France and plans to use it to raise taxes on big banks and oil companies, levy a 75-percent tax on incomes higher than $1.26 million a year, and hire 60,000 teachers....

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And up go their borrowing costs.