President "Bling Bling" has been replaced by "Mr. Normal." Francois Hollande has won France's presidential runoff, beating Nicolas Sarkozy. “François Hollande is the president of the republic, he must be respected,” Sarkozy said in a concession speech. “I want to wish him good luck in the midst of these tests.” Sarkozy then presumably jumped into a Bentley convertible waiting for him with his wife Carla Bruni and their daughter before screaming "Au revoir, suckers!"
Sarkozy becomes the first French president to lose reelection since 1981, and to add insult to injury, a "Dictator" called him a "midget" in a video message congratulating the victor.
Hollande, a member of the French Socialist Party, has promised to balance the budget in the next five years, and is willing to cut his own salary by 30% and raise taxes on the rich to 75% to make that happen, but economists are skeptical that it will be enough without more dire cuts. "There is a risk that if Mr. Hollande does not act early on," research fellow Jacob Kirkegaard tells the Times, "France will become the next sick man of Europe.” No word on whether Hollande thanked Dominique Strauss-Kahn in his acceptance speech.
