Hollande allies sweep French parliamentary polls

Francois Hollande is the man in charge after his Socialist Party swept France’s parliamentary election.

Voters welcomed the French president’s vision of injecting government money into Europe’s economies in hopes of helping the joint euro currency stave off disaster.

Socialists now have an unprecedented lock on politics in France, and plan to use it to raise taxes on big banks and oil companies, levy a 75% tax on incomes higher than €1m a year, and hire 60,000 teachers.

Mr Hollande’s strong domestic mandate will let him push back in global economic talks against the budget cuts being demanded by Germany, which Greece and other indebted countries say are driving them deeper into the financial abyss by suffocating growth.

France’s election also gave the far right National Front a toehold in parliament, a small but symbolic victory for a party that wants to stop immigration, dump the euro currency and decries the so-called “Islamisation” of France.

The conservative UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, which dominated the outgoing parliament, suffered the biggest losses.

The balloting to elect 577 politicians for France’s lower – and more powerful - house of parliament came on the same day that conservatives won a parliamentary election in Greece.

With final results still coming in, pollsters estimated France’s Socialists and their closest allies will hold between 313 and 315 seats, well over the 289 needed for a majority and exempting them from horse-trading with far-leftists who oppose some of Mr Hollande’s pro-European policies.

“This score exemplifies strong confidence in the president,” said Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, who won his own race for an Assembly seat.

“This gives a spinal column to the government and strengthens it ... our commitments will be honoured. We will not do any austerity.”

Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party went from 304 seats in the old Assembly to an estimated 214 in the new one, after Mr Sarkozy himself lost his re-election bid to Mr Hollande just six weeks ago.

Mr Hollande now has a free hand to push forward with his plans. He wants to crack down on tax shelters and encourage companies to reinvest their profits. Also on tap is requiring banks to split their traditional deposit-and-loan activities from their speculative bets in the financial markets.

Mr Hollande’s government has already made good on a controversial plan to lower the retirement age for some French workers to 60 from 62.

He also slashed the salaries of government ministers by 30% – a nod to a public wary of the much-criticised bling of Mr Sarkozy’s reign.

Mr Hollande’s pro-growth attitude is also attracting attention elsewhere in Europe. France is the eurozone’s second-biggest economy and, along with powerhouse Germany, has a major role in EU policy and providing bailouts to weaker countries.

Mr Hollande presented other European leaders last week with a new “growth pact” including €120bn worth of measures around the continent to stimulate growth, the Journal du Dimanche newspaper reported. A French official confirmed the report but would not provide details.

The French-German tandem has come under strain in recent months, not least because Chancellor Angela Merkel has opposed Mr Hollande’s vocal push for government stimulus and is defending an austerity package that she worked out with Mr Sarkozy, a fellow conservative.