Tag: French presidential 2012

François Hollande’s victory in the French presidential elections marks the end of both the ‘Merkozy’ duo and their disastrously recessionary austerity-only policies, argues Sergei Stanishev.

On Sunday (6 May), the French will elect a new president, the Greeks will hold general elections, and EU hopeful Serbia will designate their new president, Parliament and local authorities. The stakes appear high not only for the individual countries concerned but also for Europe as a whole.

A Eurostat survey revealing huge labour cost differences across the 27 EU member states unveiled yesterday (24 April) has provided fuel for the French election campaign, where the two contenders are battling over plans for a "social VAT" to protect French producers against social dumping.

On Sunday (22 April) French voters will cast ballots in the first round of the presidential election. As media in France are banned from announcing results until 20:00 local time, all eyes will turn to the French-language media in Belgium and Switzerland, which will unveil exit poll results as early as 18:00.

As part of an ongoing series, EurActiv France is profiling major candidates in the 2012 French presidential elections. Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent, faces an uphill struggle for re-election and has resorted to increasingly vocal threats to ensure he gets the “protective” Europe he wants for France.

Foreign correspondents based in Paris have criticised the leading candidates in the French presidential elections for avoiding substantive economic issues in favour of headline-grabbing, but largely symbolic proposals, EurActiv France reports.

The campaign manager of François Hollande, the socialist candidate in the French presidential election who currently leads in opinion polls, has backed away from previous demands to radically "renegotiate" the EU's fiscal discipline treaty.

As part of an ongoing series, EurActiv France is profiling leading candidates in the 2012 French presidential elections, analysing in detail what their political action, programmes and policies mean for the European Union. François Bayrou, the centrist candidate of the Democratic Movement, stresses the national responsibility for fiscal discipline and the European Union’s potential to affirm France’s place in the world, toning down his usual strong Euro-federalist rhetoric.

Conservative European leaders from Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain have banded together to shun the campaign of François Hollande, the socialist candidate for the presidential election in France and front-runner in the opinion polls, according to weekly magazine Der Spiegel.

As part of an ongoing series, EurActiv France is profiling major candidates in the 2012 French presidential elections, analysing in detail what their political action, programmes and policies mean for the European Union. François Hollande, Socialist candidate and current front-runner, promises a break with the 'Merkozy' consensus on Europe's economic crisis and a revision of the fiscal compact treaty.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy formally declared his candidacy for a second term on Wednesday (15 February), focusing his campaign on rebuilding France's "strength" and on his own "dynamism" to steer his country and Europe out of the crisis.