Hollande wins room to manoeuvre

After the French Socialists under President François Hollande emerged as the strongest party from the first round of the parliamentary elections on Sunday, the liberal daily The Guardian is optimistic that they will obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly: "It is not a mandate that the French have bestowed on Mr Hollande with huge enthusiasm. But it nevertheless hands him an opportunity to rule and to make policy that could be of critical importance for France and for Europe. Unlike other recently elected European leaders, Mr Hollande will have some real room for manoeuvre. The key factors here are his solid domestic political base, France's unique leverage over Germany and in Brussels, and the growing perception across the continent that the austerity solution, as crudely conceived and brutally applied so far, is worsening the European economic crisis rather than helping to resolve it."

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