France has a new leader after Socialist challenger Francois Hollande beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential election Sunday.
Final results Monday show Mr. Hollande won 51.6 percent of the vote to Mr. Sarkozy's 48.4 percent in Sunday's runoff election. French media say the outgoing president will officially hand over power on May 15.
The vote reflected citizens' disapproval of the country's spending cuts and high unemployment. The outgoing president said he takes responsibility for the election loss.
Mr. Hollande opposes many of the tough economic austerity measures in France. He will be the first left-wing French leader in almost 20 years.
Mr. Hollande is regarded as a mild-mannered career politician. He has promised to move quickly to implement a traditional socialist tax-and-spend program with higher taxes on the rich to help finance increased state spending.
He also is expected to try to renegotiate European Union-imposed austerity measures.
U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned his congratulations to Mr. Hollande Sunday and invited him to the White House before the G-8 and NATO summits later this month.
法國選出新領導人。社會黨人奧朗德在星期天的總統(tǒng)決選中擊敗保守派的現(xiàn)任總統(tǒng)薩科齊，成為法國新總統(tǒng)。
星期一獲得的最后結果顯示，星期天的總統(tǒng)決選中，奧朗德贏得了51.6%的選票，薩科奇的得票率為48.4%。法國媒體說，現(xiàn)任總統(tǒng)將于5月15日正式將權力移交給新總統(tǒng)。
這次投票反映出選民對開支削減計劃和高失業(yè)率感到不滿?，F(xiàn)任總統(tǒng)薩科奇說， 他接受選舉失敗的責任。
奧朗德反對在法國實施的很多嚴厲經(jīng)濟緊縮措施。他將成為法國將近20年來的首位左翼領導人。
奧朗德在民眾眼中是一位舉止溫和的職業(yè)政治家。他承諾盡快執(zhí)行社會黨傳統(tǒng)的稅收與開支計劃，增加富人稅收，以助增加國家開支提供資金。
預計他還將試圖就歐盟強制執(zhí)行的財政緊縮措施進行重新談判。
美國總統(tǒng)奧巴馬星期天通過電話向奧朗德表示祝賀，并邀請他在本月晚些時候舉行的工業(yè)8國首腦會議和北約峰會之前到白宮作客。
