As expected, the left has lost the presidential election in France. My condolences to Jerome a Paris and the entire European Tribune community.

Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president of France, defeating Socialist Segolene Royal and claiming a “mandate for change.”

Sarkozy, candidate of the governing Union for a Popular Movement, took 53.4 percent against 46.7 percent for Royal, the Interior Ministry said, with 69 percent of the vote counted.

The president-elect, 52, overcame criticism that he was too divisive and too sympathetic to the U.S., convincing voters that he was best-suited to spur economic growth. Sarkozy, interior minister and finance minister for four years under President Jacques Chirac, promised to cut taxes, reduce the number of civil servants, curb immigration and toughen sentencing.

“The people of France have chosen change,” Sarkozy said tonight in a nine-minute address at party headquarters in Paris. “I will restore the value of work, authority, morals, respect, and merit. I’ll restore national pride and national identity.”

In succeeding Chirac, his one-time mentor turned political rival, and preventing Royal, 53, from becoming the first woman president, Sarkozy will be the first French head of state born after World War II. He’ll be inaugurated on May 16 and name a government May 19 or May 20, Francois Fillon, Sarkozy’s chief campaign adviser, said on TF1 television.

So, what does it mean?

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