SALON

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 1:15 PM UTC

France’s new leader Hollande has tough to-do list

By

Topics: From the Wires,

France's new leader Hollande has tough to-do listNew French President Francois Hollande waves out of a sunroof as he rode up the Champ-Elysses avenue after the presidential handover ceremony, Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in Paris. Hollande became president of France on Tuesday in a ceremony steeped in tradition, taking over a country with deep debts and worried about Europe's future and pledging to make it a fairer place. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)(Credit: AP)

PARIS (AP) — Francois Hollande campaigned for the French presidency with some pretty radical promises. But his carefully worded agenda and his political record suggest as president he’s likely to revert to the moderate consensus-building that has characterized his career.

Here’s some of the jobs he has to tackle as France’s new leader:

CHARM MERKEL

Hollande has a tough but crucial first appointment: jetting off to Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel — who had endorsed his conservative rival and predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy. Those two were so close that some dubbed them “Merkozy.” Analysts say Hollande and Merkel will find some way to get along, because France and Germany see themselves as the twin pillars of the 17-nation eurozone. Merkel and Sarkozy took a leading role in drafting a European fiscal treaty to curb government overspending, and she has staked out a firm position in favor of austerity. Hollande, the first Socialist to lead France since 1995, wants to renegotiate that treaty to inject a call for stimulus measures.

NAME A PRIME MINISTER

Not-very-subtle whispers in Hollande’s campaign team and the French media predict the job will go to center-left Jean-Marc Ayrault, a Germanophile and longtime legislator. Then Hollande’s Socialists must win parliamentary elections next month for his pick to keep the job.

PRESIDENTIAL PAY CUT

High on Hollande’s task list is an easy one: Cutting the president’s salary and that of government ministers by 30 percent. It’s a symbolic gesture that won’t make a dent in France’s 1.33-trillion euro debt but it reinforces Hollande’s aims of redistributing wealth and being a more “normal” president than his predecessor, who followed his 2007 election with three days on a billionaire friend’s yacht.

FREEZE GASOLINE PRICES

Public anger is flaring over gasoline prices nearing 2 euros per liter ($10.40 per gallon). During his campaign, Hollande promised to freeze prices for three months and suggested that oil companies — like Total SA, one of France’s biggest taxpayers — and gas distributors will have to eat the losses from such a cap. As a longer-term solution, he wants a floating gas tax, so that as the price of gas rises, the tax rate falls. But some economists worry that could hurt government revenues too much.

HIKE TAXES ON THE RICH

Hollande’s most eye-catching campaign pledge was to make people making 1 million euros ($1.3 million) or more a year hand over 75 percent of that in income tax. Despite fears that wealthy people will flee to Britain, Belgium or Switzerland, instead, the returns from this tax are not expected to be huge. And tax lawyers say the real problem is not the top tax rate but France’s highly complicated and ever-changing tax laws — and Hollande wants to add new rules to the mix.

LOWERING THE RETIREMENT AGE

Sarkozy fought with unions to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, a reform that may economists say is crucial to lowering France’s debts. Hollande had said he wants to revisit that but he has quietly scaled back. Now he says he will only lower the retirement age for people who started work at 18 and paid into the pension system for the next 41 years straight — a modest change not seen as undermining the overall reform.

QUIT AFGHANISTAN

Hollande has pledged to speed up the withdrawal of France’s 3,400 troops from Afghanistan, pulling them out by the end of 2012. But he recently acknowledged that a fast-track withdrawal might force the French to leave behind some military gear. Spain’s defense minister thinks Hollande won’t go through with the plan so as not to leave the allies high and dry. Some defense watchers say Hollande is likely to find himself some wiggle room, such as by pulling out all “combat troops” but then leaving behind “advisers” instead.

LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE

Gay rights advocates celebrate Hollande’s steadfast commitment to legalizing gay marriage and adoption, and are encouraged by President Barack Obama’s recent embrace of the issue. But gay rights were eclipsed during a French campaign that focused intensely on the economy and immigration, and legalizing gay marriage has dropped near the bottom of the new president’s priority list. Some conservative Catholic groups in the resurgent far right are also vocally opposed.

THE CATCH

Because of France’s unusual power structure, Hollande’s whole five-year term hinges on who wins parliamentary elections next month. He needs the leftists to take control of the National Assembly to be able to push through much of his agenda. But if Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party and others on the right retain a majority, then not only does Hollande face a hostile legislature but the prime minister’s job goes to a rival on the right too.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations