French political expert James Shields' prescient view of Hollande in charge: The Europe & France of 2012 is very different from Mitterand's of '81, less a French President can do within Europe, therefore expect incrementalism not transformational changes, though this may well disappoint France's most-devout Socialists

Sign of The Times this morning, the day after le second tour de l'élection présidentielle: Left-hand turn ahead, prepare to pay increased toll to appease the professional proletariat class and their laundry list of demands & grievances. 

But we'll always have Paris, right? 

Yes, mes amis, but some of it will be moving to London soon to wait out the coming economic  déluge.

France24english video: Debate, Part 1 of 2. President Hollande: Can "Mr. Normal" lead France in times of crisis? May 7, 2012. http://youtu.be/7MpB7IM_b1g

France24 Debate show host François Picard and his guests discuss what important decisions lies ahead for president-elect François Hollande, using clips from his acceptance speech in Tulle: what factors he may weigh in selecting a Prime Minister, what that choice might suggest about Hollande's future priorities or signals to party faithful; concerns about his economic policies, and how he will deal with Angela Merkel's Germany on the Eurozone debt crisis and why German financial institutions won't like what they hear from his govt., et al.

Guests: Steven Erlanger, Paris bureau chief of the N.Y. Times; Ulrike Koltermann, former Paris bureau chief, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA); James Shields, French political expert and Head of French Studies, Aston University http://www1.aston.ac.uk/lss/staff/shieldsjg/

Patrick Vignal, Senior correspondent, Reuters/France.


For me, the best takeaway comment was that of Jim Shields, who says, more or less, the Europe and France of 2012 is very different from the one that Socialist François Mitterand strode onto, chiefly because there is more that is beyond the reasonable human control of the Élysée Palace, therefore expect incrementalism, not the transformational changes that his oldest and youngest supporters long for.





France24english video: Debate, Part 2 of 2. President Hollande: Can "Mr. Normal" lead France in times of crisis? May 7, 2012. http://youtu.be/76ZEBgYxCVE 

Not Breaking News: U.S. cablenets stay with taped programs rather than go LIVE from Paris as official results of 2012 French Presidential election are announced; watch election commentary LIVE from Paris at France24 or BFMTV

Not Breaking News: U.S. cablenets stay with taped programs rather than go LIVE from Paris as official results of 2012 French Presidential election are announced; watch election commentary LIVE from Paris at France24 or BFMTV


Final Ipsos poll via France24 at 8 p.m. in Paris: François Hollande 51.9 %, Nicolas Sarkozy 48.1%.


France24: Overall, 20.1 percent of French voters abstained from casting their ballots.
BFMTV says it was 81% participation.


Here's what the U.S. cable networks ran instead:


CNN - The Next List
MSNBC - Meet the Press (encore of NBC's telecast), which featured Tom Brokaw raising the complaint of voters that U.S. reporters are more than a bit full of themselves, and, that their being so keen on reporting on what George Clooney thinks at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, rather than DO THEIR JOBS, is one of the reasons.
Yes, the thin wall between serious news and Entertainment Tonight  
Fox News Channel - Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (encore telecast)


Yes, with all the technology available to them, this is what we get from the Mainstream Media: nothing. C'est la vie!


You can watch the heated commentary LIVE in English via http://www.france24.com/en/aef_player_popup/france24_player#

Once you click the arrow, it'll work, but there's so much demand on the line now that every few minutes it slows down and requires refreshing, just like the LIVE blog.

Click the blue link in the bottom left marked Watch : FRANCE 24 live : SPECIAL

Or you can watch it in French via BFMTV at http://www.bfmtv.com/direct

Already, less than an hour after the official results were announced, many of the Socialist members who have appeared on TV are talking about the victory as something much larger than it is, esp, considering since it was not a legislative election.

(Those elections are next month.)

They sort of remind me of many of the young female thirty-something Democratic/GOP consultants we see too much of on TV in the U.S. all the time, who you'd really like to know what they've ever actually accomplished besides getting the attention of the show's male producers, because the facts don't seem to ever get in the way of what they say.
As becomes obvious when you listen.

Meanwhile, the Front National Le Pen supporters are crowing that they are the ones who really are responsible for Sarkozy's defeat and angling for more respect,

Sarkozy gave a very classy concession speech but at the beginning of it, one of the female reporters from France24 in Tulle, where Hollande supporters were celebrating, kept talking over Sarkozy for a bit before they killed her microphone.
Hollande has still not spoken as of 3:15 Eastern U.S.