France welcomes socialist President Hollande

On May 6, François Hollande was elected president of France, wining over Nicolas Sarkozy by a comfortable margin. Hollande, however, is a socialist, a political stance not well-received, and highly misunderstood, state-side. For many here in the U.S., his win comes as a surprise.

France, though, is no stranger to socialists. From 1981-95, François Mitterrand served as president of France. His presidency is the longest in the history of the Fifth Republic of France. Mitterand, like Hollande, was a socialist, and even invited the Communist Party of France into his cabinet. A move like that would lead to bloodshed in the U.S.

Already, American media is filling the waves with fear of a French socialist, and for good reason. More of that later.

Merrill Matthews, writing for Forbes Magazine, wrote an article titled, “Comparing Obama's Policies with French Socialist Hollande.” One can guess at what the article is about.

And Fox News ran an article titled, “France's new Socialist govt cuts members' salaries,” in which it paints Hollande’s policies as negative.

For those in the know, Europe is struggling financially to get its economy back on track. Greece has been in a constant state of bankruptcy, even after being bailed out, while, Spain, Ireland and Portugal have all had their share of economic turmoil and bail outs.

Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, leader of the European Union, has been one of the key architects behind the “austerity measures,” which, in essence, destroy social programs and safety nets instead of raising taxes. While the conservative side of the argument believes that this is the only way, the other side believes it will only serve to split the classes even further, leading to a class war.

However, the class war has already begun.

It comes as no surprise then that any socialist leader would be against austerity measures as a means to get their economy back on track. Hollande, as a socialist, has no intention of allowing tough austerity measures to be enacted. This is what puts him in stark contrast to the rest of Europe, especially Germany.

Here in America we see the same trend occurring: cut spending where it’s needed most, and nobody budge. It’s gotten to the point where groups like Occupy Wall Street have protested non-stop in defiance to the political stalemate which has led to an ever divided America.