New Europe In A Weekend: French And Greek Election Results

It can be said that this weekend has changed the face of Europe. Yesterday François Hollande, the candidate for presidency from the French Socialist Party, won the election. A Socialist will be a president for the first time in 24 years. François Hollande secured 51.7% of votes. And now he is literally responsible for the fate of Eurozone.

In the meantime, in Greece the elections rouse even more fears, putting, according to the Guardian, "neo-fascists in parliament for the first time, the hard left in second place overall". The future of Greece can be called absolutely unpredictable now, but it's obvious that the policy of austerity has failed, and the same can be said about France.

As Paul Krugman writes in his column for The New York Times about Greece,

Voters take their anger out by voting against the insiders. And since all the respectable people are inside the political tent, backing and being identified with failed policies, that means a big vote for extremists right and left. 

In response to the results of Greek elections, the Greek stock market fell almost 8%. The French markets reacted less vigorous, French CAC 40 down only 1.7%.

Now, it seems that the main question is whether Mr Hollande supports Angela Merkel or not. Angela Merkel is loosing influence, her coalition of Christian and Free Democrats lost an election for control of the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, and if François Hollande doesn't back her, the whole policy of Eurozone may change rapidly.