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Obama congratulates new Socialist French president
(The Hill) – President Obama on Sunday congratulated President-elect François Hollande shortly after he was elected France’s new leader. Obama also plans on welcoming Hollande during both the Group of 8 summit at Camp David and NATO summit in Chicago later in May, according to the White House.
In a phone conversation, Obama suggested that he and Hollande meet in person ahead of the summits.
Hollande’s election could signal new diplomatic challenges for the Obama administration. He has pledged to accelerate the withdrawal of French troops from the NATO mission in Afghanistan and has called for European leaders to relax austerity measures implemented to deal with the continent’s debt crisis.
Read some of the comments which Mitt Romney can use in his election rhetoric …
For the European press, the first round of the French presidential election has one winner – Marine Le Pen of the far-right Front National – and two losers, the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany. The runoff election which pits Socialist François Hollande and conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy was long anticipated by opinion polls, which, in recent days placed Hollande as the frontrunner.
For the Financial Times Deutschland, Nicolas Sarkozy’s second place score is a “humiliation” which shows the “brutal rejection” to which he is subjected. The German daily says that the first round is “not just a result, it is a verdict against a president unable to accomplish the necessary reforms”. Convinced that the French want to get rid of Sarkozy at all cost, the FTD notes that François Hollande could have just the pragmatic skills essential to getting out of the crisis –
“The results of this first round brings a major opportunity and, at the same time, a greater risk. Paradoxically, this opportunity is hidden behind Hollande’s bland appearance and his un-dynamic personality. If there is no miracle in the next two weeks, France will get a boring president to replace someone who is constantly self-promoting. But with his reserve and his lack of determination, Hollande may be more capable than his predecessor at launching a pragmatic policy of necessary reforms to lift the country out of the debt crisis and of its economic misery.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
