France is set to vote in a run-off poll that could see a socialist win a French presidential election for the first time since 1988.

In the first round socialist Francois Hollande won 28.6% of the vote, ahead of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on 26.2%.

Rising unemployment and the euro crisis have dominated the campaign.

Mr Sarkozy says he averted recession and will preserve a "strong France". Mr Hollande contends the country is in "serious crisis" and needs change.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17972625

Socialist Francois Hollande is France's new president after winning a majority of votes and defeating Nicholas Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy conceded defeat to Mr Hollande within half an hour of the last polling stations closing on Sunday.

Based on initial counts of ballots cast, polling institutes project Mr Hollande will win the election with between 51.8 to 52 per cent of the vote.

Mr Hollande, a 57-year-old career politician, claimed victory from his home town in rural France.

He expressed "deep gratitude" to his supporters.

"The French people have chosen change," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-07/francois-hollande-wins-french-presidency/3994466

Doing the round of emails in France...:

Translation: France, exile of the Italian and Hungarian couple...

About  Valerie Trierveiler

"Anger is an energy," the great philosopher John Lydon once said. Personally, I'm constantly amazed women are so Buddhist about unfolding events. Only last month, when New York Times golf writer Karen Crouse protested at the Masters over being banned from the "jacket ceremony", I did idly speculate (to myself, in my own kitchen) whether we might make more progress in 2012 if we began handing out the odd ninja one-inch death punches, instead of e-petitions.

If Valerie is to be muzzled, please don't let it be before she visits Rome, where protocol advisers are already alarmed at the prospect of a twice-divorced woman with children accompanying a president and being treated respectfully like his wife when they're NOT EVEN MARRIED. "Surely Hollande will have to propose?" I've read, "and make an honest woman of her before they meet The Pope?"

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/grace-dent-lets-hear-it-for-frances-new-premire-dame-shes-angry--and-she-has-every-right-to-be-7723214.html

About Carla Bruni

Only heightening her appeal: lurking just beneath her groomed surface lies a less polite creature – a veritable tigress, in fact. She is a reputable singer/songwriter, actor, mother and woman who springs to her husband’s and children’s defence through good times and bad. The effect is potent to say the least. It’s not news that her tenure has brought with it a degree of controversy: rumours of extra-marital affairs, forthcoming divorce and, more recently, comparisons with Marie Antoinette following her admittedly somewhat deluded claims to live “a modest life”. In Undressed a little known 1998 documentary following the history of 20th century fashion, she demonstrated the difference between a “natural move” and a “model move” for the camera, explaining that the point of the latter was “to look down on people”. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/carla-bruni-sarkozy-au-revoir-to-frances-first-lady-of-style-7721963.html

And what about our own Prime Minister, gloriously an atheist, living in sin with a hairdresser at the lodge? I find this very Australian... unlike the little catholic liar... Meanwhile comes rain or shine, Julia sports a serene grin, worthy of a dragon, that says "she'll be right, mate" — disregarding the haughty taughty ritewingers scoffing in their whisky as they plot against her and the dung beetles pushing "it" uphill...

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/tweetweiler-takes-swipe-at-hollandes-ex-20120613-208y1.html#ixzz1xdPudGJp

ONE of France’s best known journalists has been sacked by his newspaper for writing too many ‘‘offensive’’ articles about Valerie Trierweiler, the new first lady, it has been reported.

Philippe Sollers, who has written for Le Journal du Dimanche for the past 13 years, is said to have gone ‘‘one step too far’’ in an article that attacked Miss Trierweiler’s controversial Twitter message that provoked political outrage in France earlier this month.

Miss Trierweiler, the partner of the French President, Francois Hollande, tweeted her personal support for a political rival of his former lover Segolene Royal for a seat in parliament. Miss Royal subsequently lost.

Sollers, 76, who has written several novels,  criticised Miss Trierweiler in several articles. On Sunday, he wrote: ‘‘Let’s not muck about, this is serious, it’s pure suffering, it’s a dagger blow administered by the first ‘blade’ of France. The elections, the euro crisis, the massacres in Syria, the taxes to come, the slow march of National Front, they are all nothing compared to that tweet.’’

Le Point magazine claimed on Monday that Sollers had been sacked. To complicate  things, LeJournal du Dimanche is owned by the publisher Lagardere, which also owns Paris Match magazine, the publication where Miss Trierweiler still works.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/writer-sacked-after-first-lady-criticism-20120626-210nf.html#ixzz1yx5dVtdl

French investigating magistrates have issued a fourth charge against ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy for allegedly accepting Libyan cash to fund his 2007 presidential campaign.

He is accused of "membership in a criminal conspiracy", in the long-running investigation. The charges could lead to a trial.

After four days of questioning he rejected all the charges. He was also questioned last year.

There are also other cases against him.

In the Libya investigation he was charged in 2018 with corruption, illegal campaign financing and benefiting from embezzled public funds.

In January magistrates also placed a former Sarkozy aide, Thierry Gaubert, under formal investigation.

Prosecutors suspect that Mr Sarkozy and several associates received millions of euros from the regime of the late Col Muammar Gaddafi to help his election campaign. He served as president from 2007 to 2012. 

"My innocence is once again trampled on by a decision that presents no evidence at all of any illicit financing," he wrote on Facebook.

• Sarkozy loses final bid to avoid bribery trial
• I'm living in hell, says France's Sarkozy
• France's Nicolas Sarkozy: 'Bling' and legal woes

In a separate case, he is to go on trial accused of trying to bribe a magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, by offering a prestigious job in Monaco in return for information about a criminal inquiry into his political party. His court appearance is scheduled for 23 November to 10 December, AFP news agency reports.

And he is due to go on trial from 17 March to 15 April 2021 over the so-called Bygmalion affair, in which he is accused of having fraudulently overspent in his 2012 presidential campaign. His 2012 re-election bid was unsuccessful.

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54571540

Read from top.