Though always estimated by true progressives in France as more of a centrist, the presidential victory of Francois Hollande one year ago was largely celebrated as victory for the nation's Left movement.
It was also hailed a victory for the left here. Still, the dynamics are interesting.
Robert Kuttner
A Tale of Two Elections
<...>
The comparison with Obama is all too instructive. Like Obama, Hollande inherits an economic crisis not of his own making, but one that will soon be his. Like Obama, he faces both an oligarchy of bankers and a fierce set of political opponents determined to block his program. In Obama's case, the obstructionists have been the Republicans in Congress; in Hollande's, they are the conservative leaders of other European Union nations. Like Obama, he will have great difficulty producing change at a grand enough scale. And absent something close to a miracle, disillusion will soon follow.
The slightly hopeful news is that several other leaders will welcome a counterpoint to Merkel. Recessions, after all, destroy conservative incumbents as well as progressive ones. At the EU level, a senior commissioner, Olli Rehn, is already talking of loosening the fiscal screws.
In the headline to this post, I was thinking of two elections -- 2008 in America and 2012 in France -- but actually there are three more worth noting.
In France, parliamentary elections come later, in mid-June. Hollande has to win a working majority in the Chamber of Deputies in order to appoint a Socialist prime minister and effectively govern. If conservatives win the parliamentary elections, or if the far right and far left make major gains so that Hollande ends up governing in coalition with Sarkozy's UMP party, he is stymied before he starts.
- more -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/a-tale-of-two-elections_b_1495256.htmlSocialist won the parliamentary elections so it's interesting that Hollande is facing backlash for his policies.
French Socialists win absolute parliament majority
By Catherine Bremer and Brian Love
(Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande's Socialists won a resounding parliamentary majority on Sunday, strengthening his hand as he presses euro zone paymaster Germany to support debt-laden states weighed down by austerity cuts and ailing banks.
The Socialist Party and its affiliates secured 307 seats in the parliamentary election runoff, according to the final count for mainland France, comfortably more than the 289 needed for a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly.
The left-wing triumph means Hollande, elected in May, won't need to rely on the environmentalist Greens, who won 16 seats, or the Communist-dominated Left Front, with 10 deputies, to pass laws. The centre-left already controls the upper house of parliament, the Senate.
"This gives power and a backbone to the government," said Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, calling the result a vote of confidence in Hollande's government that would enable it to forge ahead with its economic and euro zone policies.
- more -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/17/us-france-election-idUSBRE85G03F20120617
From the OP link:
The demonstrations come with polls showing Hollande as the most unpopular president in modern French history. Many voters are angered by an economy on the edge of recession and unemployment hitting a 16-year high.
<...>
He accused Hollande of contributing to Europe's economic crisis by focusing on "the interests of shareholders, of big business and of European austerity policies, to the detriment of the workers."
= new reply since forum marked as read