hollande beats sarkozy even without trophy wife

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE DEFEATS NICOLAS SARKOZY


Francois Hollande has won the second round of the French Presidential elections. 


Partial official results, with about half of the nationwide votes counted, showed Hollande with 50.8 percent compared to 49.2 percent for Sarkozy. Exit polls had shown Hollande winning with 51.8 percent to 53 percent, compared with 47 percent to 48.2 percent for Sarkozy.

Sarkozy cancelled his victory party and conceded the election minutes after the polls closed, saying he had called Hollande to wish him "good luck" as the country's new leader.


Hollande has indicated that he wants to renegotiate the European treaty on budget cuts that Germany's Angela Merkel and Sarkozy had championed.

The election outcome could also have an impact on how long French troops stay in Afghanistan.

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GREECE'S TWO MAIN AUSTERITY PARTIES SUFFER BIG LOSSES


Exit polls in the Greek parliamentary election suggest the two main parties, which have carried out the austerity policies demanded by the British Empire via the Troika, have suffered big losses. 

The polls, televised across Greece, put the New Democracy Party in the lead with 17-20% of the vote. Syriza, an anti-austerity coalition party, is put just in second place, with PASOK third.

The exit polls showed New Democracy with 17-20%, Syriza at 15.5-18.5%, and PASOK in third place with 14-17%. In 2009, New Democracy won 33.5%, PASOK received 43.9%, and Syriza had 4.6% of the vote.

That means that the two parties which have imposed fascist genocide policies on Greece have received less than 35% of the vote, compared to the 77% of the vote which they received in 2009.

Alexis Tisipras, head of the Syriza party, campaigned against the austerity deal and for an FDR New Deal.

In a recent speech he said: "For two years they have taken decisions without asking us.


The Greek people didn't give them the mandate to take those decisions. In the birthplace of democracy, there is no democracy. The time has come to return democracy to the place where it was born."

"If the politics of austerity continue, Europe is in big danger of breaking up. These policies are causing unhappiness, unemployment and poverty, as in the 1930s. Europe needs social solidarity and not to work according to market laws." He has said that Greece is being turned into a "protectorate," stripped of any say in the running of its own affairs. "We want the loan agreement to be annulled," he has insisted, calling the terms attached to the bailout of the Greek economy "inhumane." 


"Europe is desperately in need of a Roosevelt-style New Deal." (what does Obama say about that)  

The anti-austerity bloc could garner up to 60% of the vote. As many as 10 parties may have obtained sufficient votes to clear the 3% threshold necessary to enter the parliament.
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MERKEL'S COALITION LOSES IN SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN ELECTIONS

Exit polls in the election in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday show that voters have likely ousted a governing center-right government made up of the same parties as Chancellor Angela Merkel's federal coalition.

A poll for Germany's public broadcaster ARD on Sunday found the conservative Christian Democrats remained almost flat at 30.6 percent and their coalition partner, the Free Democrats, slid from 14.9 percent to 8.3 percent in the country's northernmost state, Schleswig-Holstein state.

The poll repport says the opposition Social Democrats gained 4.5 percent and secured 29.9 percent of the vote, the Greens stood at about 14 percent, and the Pirate party achieved seats in the legislature for the first time with 8 percent.

The Left Party failed to secure enough votes to pass the minimum threshold to re-enter parliament, but the SSW party representing the state's Danish minority secured 4.5 percent and will again have seats in the legislature.

The SPD may form a coalition with the Greens, replacing the CDU-FDP coalition, which has governed the state since 2009. 

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SERBIAN ELECTIONS RESULT IN A RUN-OFF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION


Preliminary results in the Serbian presidential elections today give Boris Tadic, president of Serbia from 2004 until he resigned ahead of the May 6, 2012 elections, somewhere between 26 and 27 percent of the vote, and Tomislav Nikolic of the Serbia Progressive Party, somewhere around 25.6 to 25.9 percent. 

Socialist Party of Serbia leader Ivica Dacic was said to have received around 14 percent, and Democratic Party of Serbia leader Vojislav Kotunica received about 7 percent.

As a result of the near-tie vote between Tadic and Nikolic, a run-off election will be held between the two on May 20.

The election was dominated by concerns about the country's economy. Unemployment is approximately 24 percent, and average salaries are the equivalent of 350 euro monthly.