Hollande Beats Sarkozy in French Election
Polling projections and a partial vote count show Francois Hollande becoming the first Socialist president of France in nearly two decades.
With half the votes counted nationwide, Hollande was leading the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent. Sarkozy, the center-left candidate, was considered the favored candidate among French Jews.
Polls showed Hollande finishing with about 52 percent of the vote to 48 percent for Sarkozy, , of the Union for a Popular Movement party, would be the first French president to lose re-election in 30 years.
Hollande would become France’s first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand, who served from 1981 to 1995.
Sarkozy would be the ninth European leader to be ousted since the start of the continent’s debt crisis, Bloomberg reported.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
