Posted on 05/07/2012 5:44:31 PM PDT by Starman417
It turns out that left wingers really do believe in unicorns. Even in France.
François Hollande has defeated Nicolas Sarkozy in the French Presidential election. Honestly, sometimes it's not easy to take the French people seriously. Hollande made a number of campaign promises, including
Hollande wants to renegotiate a hard-won European treaty on budget cuts that Germany's Angela Merkel and Sarkozy had championed. He wants more government stimulus, and more government spending in general despite concerns from markets that France needs to urgently trim its huge debts.
Hollande’s win represents a groundshift in European politics; with a socialist president, France will become the only major European country moving to the left instead of to the right in response to the economic downturn. Hollande has promised to raise taxes, lower retirement age, and boost spending levels. One of Hollande’s major initiatives is his pledge to raise the marginal tax rate for earnings above $1 million to 75%.
Hollande is going to lower retirement age thus reducing productivity while increasing spending and raising tax rates on the highest earners.
That's not going to go well. Mark these predictions for the future. The French have become accustomed to a state-supported and unproductive style of living as have the Greeks. Sarkozy tried to wean them off of that, but that's not all the French disliked about Sarkozy. They also hated his flamboyance:
Never has a French president been so disliked, as much for his personal style as for his austere deficit-busting policies, and the right-wing leader vowed months ago to quit politics if defeated.
more:
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Reading the article, it seems that Sarkozy had a lot in common with Bush. He wandered from his principles and lost his base.
“Why Barack Sarkozy lost”
Because his is/was an incumbent. This is a bad year for incumbents. You can’t blame this on conservatism as the libs would like. The Greeks turned out both major parties. The Spanish threw out the socialists a few weeks ago.
France has a parliment with an upper and lower house. Their assembly trumps the upper house (senate). The socialist currently have a majority in the senate. Their parlimentary election is held separately in June. Hollande won his election with a slim margin, but needs to win a majority in the assembly or he becomes not much more than a caretaker.
The French...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4r0VUybeXY&feature=related
“Types of Government, Explained”
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy. “
Either Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1813) or Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859).
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