French Election: Local Newspapers React to Hollande's First-Round Victory

April 23, 2012 from France 24

French newspapers react to results from the first round of the country's presidential election, with many giving the Sarkozy campaign up for lost, and focusing instead on what a President Hollande might mean for France, as well as analyzing far-right candidate Marine Le Pen's surprisingly strong first-round showing.

(more) (less)

In This Video

French presidential election, 2012

A presidential election was held in France on 22 April 2012, with a second round run-off held on 6 May to elect the President of France. The incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy was running for a second successive and, under the terms of the constitution, final term in the election. The ... Explore this topic

Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen is a lawyer by profession, a French right-wing politician and the president of the Front National, the third-largest political party in France, since 16 January 2011. She is the youngest daughter of the French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, former president of the... Explore this topic

François Hollande

François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande is the 24th and current President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra. He was previously the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008, and the Deputy of the National Assembly of France for Corrèze's 1st Constituenc... Explore this topic

Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy is a French politician who served as the 23rd President of France from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012. Before his presidency, he was the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement. Under Jacques Chirac's presidency he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-P... Explore this topic

France

France, officially the French Republic, is a unitary semi-presidential republic located mostly in Western Europe, with several overseas regions and territories. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine ... Explore this topic

Politics of France

France is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, in which the President of France is head of state and the Prime Minister of France is the head of government, and there is a pluriform, multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legisla... Explore this topic

Le Front National

The National Front was a francophone Belgian far-right political party. The party's ideology advocated a strong unitary Belgian nationalism and strongly opposed immigration and also tried to attract Flemish voters. The party's acting leader was Patrick Cocriamont. In the 2003 ... Explore this topic

Far-right politics

The terms far right, or extreme right, describe the broad range of political groups and ideologies usually taken to be further to the right of the mainstream center-right on the traditional left-right spectrum. Far right politics commonly involves support for strong inequality... Explore this topic

Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)

The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, being one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under Presi... Explore this topic

French Socialist Party

The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. The PS is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement. The party replaced the earli... Explore this topic

Also See

French presidential election, 2012

Marine Le Pen

François Hollande

Watch Next

3:00

Francois Hollande elected as first Socialist to lead France in 17 years

Democracy Now! | May 7

Voters in Europe have supported anti-austerity candidates in landmark victories. In France's presidential election, Francois Hollande was elected a...