Socialists win French Parliament elections
PARIS — France’s President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party won a solid majority in parliamentary elections Sunday, polling agencies projected, fortifying Hollande in his push for governments to spend money — not cut budgets — to tackle Europe’s economic crisis.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives, who dominated the outgoing National Assembly, suffered a stinging loss, according to all estimations. Meanwhile, the far-right National Front party was on track to win a small but symbolically important presence in Parliament for the first time in years.
“This new, solid and large majority will allow us now to pass laws for change, and gives us great responsibilities in France and in Europe,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on France-2 television as the results started coming in.
Elections in France and Greece on Sunday will weigh on Europe’s future and whether its debt troubles will hobble markets and economies across the globe. France is the second-biggest economy in the eurozone and, along with powerhouse Germany, contributes heavily to bailouts for weaker nations and often drives EU-wide policy.
France’s Socialists will have between 308 and 320 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly after Sunday’s second-round parliamentary elections, the TNS-Sofres Sopra Group, Ipsos and CSA agencies estimated. The pollsters’ projections were based on actual vote counts in select districts around the nation.
That’s well over the 289 the Socialists needed for a majority, and it means they won’t have to rely on farleftists who oppose some of Hollande’s pro-European policies to pass legislation.
It’s a stunning turnaround for the Socialists, a party that spent much of the last decade mired in division and confused about its direction. Hollande’s victory over Sarkozy on May 6 led the way for the leftists’ legislative sweep.
Hollande has said his first priorities for the new Parliament include postponing a balanced budget until 2017, raising income taxes to 75 percent for those who earn more than ¤1 million ($1.26 million) a year, and hiring 60,000 new teachers.
A solid parliamentary majority for Hollande frees him up to make the changes to tax laws and impose the new spending he promised, and it gives him a stronger mandate to push for stimulus programs in global economic talks. He heads Monday to the G-20 summit in Mexico.