Hollande defeats Sarkozy in French presidency vote

"Hollande makes an awful lot of sense when he talks about the need for less austere, less restrictive fiscal policies, but his credibility is much undermined when he talks about reversing the increases in the retirement age or increasing the minimal wage by a huge amount," said Simon Tilford of the CER. "That will make it hard for the French, the Spanish and the Italians to work more closely together to counter the German dominance," he added. "And without those three working together, it's quite hard to see any huge shift in strategy coming about."