Publication

This brief analyzes the French presidential elections in the immediate aftermath of the victory of Socialist candidate François Hollande. Outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy joins a long line of heads of state in the EU who, since the start of the economic-financial crisis, have failed to be reelected to a second term. The reasons for Sarkozy's failure were not only his leadership, personality, and lifestyle, which infuriated many, but more particularly his inability to implement even a fraction of his economic program. His successor now faces the difficult mission of extricating France from the crisis.