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French president Francois has had enough of austerity but claims he "cannot do it alone". The Financial Times reports François Hollande goes on ‘offensive’ over stalled EU economy. François Hollande promised an “offensive� to bring “more growth and less austerity� to Europe as he launched a bid to resurrect his presidency. Mr Hollande said the first priority of his second-year “offensive� was a four-point plan to “get Europe out of its torpor� – concentrating on combating youth unemployment and a strategy of investment. “The number one objective is changing Europe’s direction to have more growth and less austerity,� he said....

France’s justice minister has said she supports land reform in the country’s overseas territories to help the descendents of slaves, two days after President Hollande declared reparations for slavery were impossible. Justice Minister Christiane Taubira has called on the French government to consider ways to redistribute land in its Caribbean overseas territories to favour the descendants of slaves, just two days after President François Hollande ruled out reparations for France’s role in the colonial-era slave trade. “In the overseas territories there was a land grab, the general result was that the descendents of slaves were left without access to land....

... A local official had given the camel to Mr Hollande in gratitude for France spearheading a drive to flush out Islamic extremists from Mali. But the well-intentioned gift soon proved a liability. The camel ruined its handover ceremony by drowning out a Malian official's speech with its screeching. Mr Hollande's voice could just be heard over the din when he promised: "I will use it as a means of transport as often as possible." ... The camel had already embarrassed Mr Hollande when Said Toureg, a man from the Timbuktu region, claimed that it had been stolen from him...

PARIS — France's Socialist government said it had ordered ministers to declare their assets publicly within days, as it seeks to limit the damage from a tax fraud scandal involving an ex-minister. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced that ministers would have until April 15 to publish details of their assets as part of a package of new financial transparency measures. The government will also put forward a law on financial transparency among ministers and other top officials by April 24, with plans for it to be adopted by the summer, he said in a statement. The move comes as President...

Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in central Paris for a final mass protest against a bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption. Demonstrators gathered along a major street up to the Arc de Triomphe. There were scuffles and police fired tear gas as the protest spilled over onto the Champs Elysees, the avenue which runs past the president's palace. France's Senate is due to debate the bill next month after it was passed by the lower house of parliament. President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party and its allies dominate both houses. Opinion polls suggest a majority of French people...

The window of opportunity for diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program “will not be opened indefinitely,” US Vice President Joe Biden warned in an interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Friday. snip Biden set out on a European tour during which he was to meet with Syrian opposition leader Mouaz Alkhatib on Saturday to discuss US concerns about the Syrian conflict with representatives from Russia and the UN. He was scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Friday, French President François Hollande on Monday, and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday. On Thursday, outgoing...

France’s president, François Hollande paid a triumphant visit to this ancient city on Saturday, receiving a rapturous welcome from thousands of people who gathered next to a 14th-century mosque to dance, play drums and chant “Vive la France!” The muezzin, whose singing calls residents to pray five times a day, wore a scarf in the colors of the French flag as he shouted, “Vive Hollande!

The effort by François Hollande to get the wealthy to fund his Socialist agenda isn't off to a propitious start, needless to say. The announcement of Hollande's 75% tax rate for high-income earners has panicked the business and investment communities in France that Hollande needs to generate economic growth. It drove France's greatest living actor (and perhaps overall artist) to abandon his native country for the greener pastures of Belgium … or perhaps Russia: Gerard Depardieu, the French actor awarded Russian citizenship this month, is shopping for land near a provincial capital where he plans to settle down after a...

President François Hollande said on Thursday that Islamist groups holding French hostages in Africa were not trustworthy and should not be taken seriously after Al-Qaeda accused Paris of blocking negotiations for their release. There are a total of nine French hostages on the continent. On Tuesday the Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said France was snubbing talks proposed by the group to free four French citizens abducted in Niger in September 2010. "The less one speaks, the better one can work," Hollande told journalists during a visit to Rungis, a giant wholesale food market just outside Paris. "There have been...

France’s President François Hollande has weighed this weekend into the war of words between his government and the Catholic Church over holding discussions in schools on the planned legalization of same-sex marriage. He defended Education Minister Vincent Peillon on Saturday for urging Catholic schools, which teach about one-fifth of all pupils in France, to stay neutral in the debate. … The shrill polemics could not drown out another big news story: the growing unpopularity of Hollande and his government. One poll said 75 percent of voters doubt he can keep a New Year’s promise to turn around rising unemployment this...

François Hollande on Monday vowed to press on with his super-tax on the rich, despite a damning decision by France’s top court to throw it out as unconstitutional. But it is uncertain when a new version of the tax will be introduced and whether it will be watered down. … “We will still ask more of those who have the most,” said Hollande. He added that the exceptional tax on France’s wealthy would be “adjusted without changing its objective”, but did not provide details of any new proposal. … The tax remains overwhelmingly popular with the French public, 60% of...

French president François Hollande suffered a damaging setback yesterday when France’s highest court ruled his proposed 75% “supertax” rate unconstitutional. The measure, which is blamed for an exodus of wealthy French abroad, was a pillar of the Socialist leader’s successful Spring election campaign. But in an unexpected blow, France’s Constitutional Council ruled that the tax band did not guarantee equality for taxpayers because two households with the same total revenue could end up with different tax bills. Although the tax would have hit only around 1,500 people, it was seen as the totem in Hollande’s political manifesto, which said it...

France’s parliament has passed a contentious budget for next year that includes a raft of new taxes aimed slashing the country’s deficit and putting it on the path to economic recovery. …

In the midst of the economic crisis, France’s Socialists are denying reality. The minister of industrial renewal is calling for nationalization of some industries, while the president shies away from necessary structural reforms. Business leaders fear the clock has been turned back 30 years. … France’s business leaders felt as if they had been set back 30 years, to a time when the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic, François Mitterrand, began his term with a wave of nationalizations and, after two years, was forced to reverse his policy. Some even drew a comparison with 1945, when the government...

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday urged the global community to help defuse a crisis in Mali by giving United Nations backing to a West African-led military intervention. Hollande, making his first speech to the UN General Assembly, said Mali needs help to seize back territory from Islamist rebels, who captured the north and east of the country after a coup created a power vacuum in March. France has offered to supply logistical support for any military force, in what is a delicate situation for the former colonial power, with six French hostages held in the area by AQIM. The...

Whereas some may have welcomed the latest development in the Great French Socialist Revolution chronicles, primarily those 8-16 year olds who would directly benefit from president Francois Hollande's attempt to capture the vote of those still ineligible to actually vote, by promising to do away with homework (because it encourages "inequality" as homework apparently "favors the wealthy"), everyone else saw right through it for the sad attempt at populism it was. Luckily, the impact of this idiotic policy, if it were to actually pass, would not be visible for at least a decade at which point French society would be...

French President Francois Hollande has vowed to ban homework as part of wide-ranging reforms to the country's education system. Hollande has expressed worries over the fact that privileged children benefit from parental assistance on take-home assignments and that disadvantaged children do not have support at home. "An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home," the New York Daily News quoted Hollande, as saying. According to a report by France 24, Hollande's extensive education reform plans also include increasing financial aid while combating truancy. He also intends to provide incentives...

France is sliding into a grave economic crisis and risks a full-blown “hurricane” as investors flee rocketing tax rates, the country’s business federation has warned. Francois Hollande is tightening fiscal policy by 2pc of GDP next year to meet EU deficit targets “The situation is very serious. Some business leaders are in a state of quasi-panic,” said Laurence Parisot, head of employers’ group MEDEF. “The pace of bankruptcies has accelerated over the summer. We are seeing a general loss of confidence by investors. Large foreign investors are shunning France altogether. It’s becoming really dramatic.” MEDEF, France’s equivalent of the CBI,...

France is sliding into a grave economic crisis and risks a full-blown “hurricane” as investors flee rocketing tax rates, the country’s business federation has warned. “The situation is very serious. Some business leaders are in a state of quasi-panic,” said Laurence Parisot, head of employers’ group MEDEF. “The pace of bankruptcies has accelerated over the summer. We are seeing a general loss of confidence by investors. Large foreign investors are shunning France altogether. It’s becoming really dramatic.” MEDEF, France’s equivalent of the CBI, said the threat has risen from “a storm warning to a hurricane warning”, adding that the Socialist...

French President Francois Hollande has said he will end homework as part of a series of reforms to overhaul the country’s education system. And the reason he wants to ban homework?  He doesn’t think it is fair that some kids get help from their parents at home while children who come from disadvantaged families don’t. It’s an issue that goes well beyond France, and has been part of the reason that some Americans oppose homework too. Hollande’s reform plans include increasing the number of teachers, moving the school week from four days to 4 1/2 days, overhauling the curriculum and...

Francois Hollande 'shared' his mistress Valerie Trierweiler with Sarkozy minister Francois Hollande "shared" his mistress Valerie Trierweiler with a minister from Nicolas Sarkozy's government in a Jules et Jim-style relationship, a new biography on France's first lady claims. La Frondeuse (The Troublemaker), claims that Miss Trierweiler, 47, had an affair with Patrick Devedjian, 68, a former economic recovery minister, in the early 2000s, but that the Socialist Mr Hollande, 58, muscled in when the Right-winger failed to commit himself further to the relationship. There followed a period "a bit like Jules et Jim," said the co-author Christophe Jakubyszyn, a close...

Unemployment in France touched 10.2% in April, a number last seen in 1999 according to data from Eurostat. click on chart for sharper image The question on newly-elected President Francois Hollande's mind is what to do about it. Economic Insanity  Hollande's layoff clampdown solution according to Labour Minister Michel Sapin is to "make layoffs so expensive for companies that it's not worth it." France's new Socialist government is planning to ramp up the cost of laying off workers for companies in the coming months, its labour minister said on Thursday after data showed the jobless rate hit the highest...

If French President François Hollande thinks he can assuage the bond markets by dishing out tax-heavy austerity instead of genuine reform, he has been given very bad advice. His tragically-misguided budget offers no strategic plan to reverse -- or even to stop -- thirty years of slow national decline. He offers no worthwhile measures to slim the Leviathan state, now a Nordic-sized 55pc of GDP, without Nordic labour flexibility or Nordic free markets. He does not tell us how he will stem the slide in France’s share of eurozone exports over the last decade, down from 17pc to 13pc, or...

French President François Hollande has vowed to shut down the country’s oldest nuclear power station by 2016, and in a wide-ranging speech on the environment, says his government would reject development of shale gas using a controversial extraction method known as ‘fracking’. Hollande, who took office in May, announced on Friday (14 September) he would shut the Fessenheim nuclear station in Alsace, near the German border, by the end of 2016, sticking to his election pledge to halt its operations by the end of his mandate in 2017. … France derives 75% of its electricity from nuclear production, more than...

  Francois Hollande will celebrate 100 days since his election as French president on Tuesday knowing his honeymoon with the electorate is over and that life is not going to get easier any time soon.   Record unemployment and an economy headed back into recession provide a sombre backdrop to an event Hollande will mark by interrupting his summer break to visit police officers in a village where two of their female colleagues died in a shootout in June. The village, Pierrefeu-du-Var, is located close to the Fort de Bregancon presidential retreat where Hollande has been on holiday with his glamorous journalist...

PARIS — The call to Vincent Grandil’s Paris law firm began like many others that have rolled in recently. On the line was the well-paid chief executive of one of France’s most profitable companies, and he was feeling nervous. President François Hollande is vowing to impose a 75 percent tax on the portion of anyone’s income above a million euros ($1.24 million) a year. “Should I be preparing to leave the country?” the executive asked Mr. Grandil. The lawyer’s counsel: Wait and see. For now, at least. “We’re getting a lot of calls from high earners who are asking whether...

President Francois Hollande of France said, Sunday, that his country would do all it could so that its Jewish citizens could live safely and peacefully there. During a speech at a memorial observance marking the roundup of the Jews of Paris and their being sent to the Nazi death camps, Hollande declared that the French government would fight Antisemitism since not to do so is to accept it. Hollande added that generations of blindness and lies allowed the Holocaust to happen, and noted that its memory must be memorialized and taught...

France's first couple are leading 'separate lives' and could even announce their break-up over summer, France's GALA Magazine has revealed. The prediction comes after Valerie Trierweiler, the partner of President Francois Hollande, was attacked for sending a Twitter message supporting a rival of Segolene Royale, the mother of his four children, in parliamentary elections last month. The controversial Twitter message was posted in June, less than a month after Francois Hollande was elected to president, causing a national outcry in France.

  The new French president, François Hollande, said Saturday that he had told those close to him to keep their private lives private and to resolve their conflicts away from the news media. Mr. Hollande, who campaigned for France’s highest office on a pledge to be “a normal president,” has been embarrassed by the evident strain between his partner, Valérie Trierweiler, and his four children, whom he fathered with a former Socialist presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal. “Private affairs are resolved in private,” Mr. Hollande said in a 45-minute, nationally televised interview on the French national holiday Bastille Day. “And I have...

If you believe the French weekly Le Point, Thomas Hollande, the 27-year-old lawyer and son of President François Hollande and his former partner, Ségolène Royal, blasted his father’s current partner in an interview for “putting private life in the public domain” by backing a political opponent of his mother. If you believe Thomas Hollande, on the other hand, there was no such interview, just a conversation with a young woman who twisted his words. “I deny giving an interview to Le Point,” he told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday evening. “The comments reported, some of which are distorted or out of...

France’s President Francois Hollande has reaffirmed his commitment to nuclear arms. Boldly going where no French head of state has gone for almost 40 years, Hollande took a three hour trip off the coast of Brittany on the submarine ‘Terrible’.

France's socialists recently gained a sizable majority of their parliament, as well as electing the ultimate champagne socialist to the presidency. I'm enjoying following the French beat, not because I take any perverse pleasure in watching countries suffer and stagnate beneath the myriad opportunity costs and petulant ineptitudes of socialism --- but rather because the way this is all going to play out is just so utterly, laughably, painfully predictable. It's not going to work out according to your sanguine, reality-negligent plans, I can promise you that much, France: France's new Socialist government announced tax rises worth 7.2 billion euros...

French President François Hollande's popularity has fallen by two percentage points to 59 percent, a poll published on the Journal du Dimanche's website showed on Saturday. The survey by pollster Ipsos was conducted between June 14 and June 22, a few days before and after the second round on June 17 of France's parliamentary election, which gave a large victory to Hollande's Socialist Party. Hollande's prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had an approval rating of 65 percent, unchanged on the previous. …

French President François Hollande wants the European Union to agree before the end of 2012 on growth-boosting measures worth €120 billion, putting him on a collision course with German Chancellor Angela Merkel who has ruled out further spending to restart Europe's ailing economy. The money is to come from a combination of short-term growth instruments such as project bonds, reallocated EU structural funds and fresh investment capital from the European Investment Bank (EIB), according to the weekly Journal du Dimanche on Sunday (17 June). The paper cited a proposal circulated by France ahead of an EU summit on 28-29 June,...

The French, like most of us, love a catfight. When First Girlfriend Valérie Trierweiler tweeted her support for the opponent of Ségolène Royal, the rival she supplanted in the affections of President François Hollande, in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, the entire nation sank with delight into the bliss of watching the political become personal. Barely a month ago, the day after her partner was elected President of the French Republic, Trierweiler confidently told Agence France Presse how much better suited to the job she was than her predecessor, Carla Bruni, Nicolas Sarkozy’s third wife. “Carla Bruni comes from a world entirely...

  François Hollande may have been elected France’s president only a month ago, but the fate of his presidency will rest largely on the results of legislative elections that begin Sunday and conclude a week later. Mr. Hollande, a Socialist, barely won over a deeply unpopular Nicolas Sarkozy, in part by remaining vague about his policies. That tactical vagueness has continued through this campaign for the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, which is to a great extent a continuation of the presidential campaign. Mr. Hollande has been presenting himself as a “normal” president, unveiling an amateurish-looking official portrait that...

The companion of the new French president has finally found a role for herself, but her choice is getting mixed reviews. Valérie Trierweiler, the partner and closest confidante of President François Hollande, said she wanted to continue working as a journalist, prompting some to complain about the potential conflict of interest. Ms. Trierweiler has covered political and cultural issues for Paris Match magazine for more than 20 years. Since Mr. Hollande took office, she negotiated with the magazine to continue to contribute book and art reviews and other cultural coverage a few times a month. “It’s an unprecedented situation,” Olivier...

Workers who entered employment aged 18 will be able to retire at 60 rather than 62, under the decree agreed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The decision follows pre-election promises from the new president Francois Hollande to reverse the rise in the retirement age introduced by his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. “We committed to put this measure in place quickly for social justice for those who started working early,” said Social Affairs Minister Marisol Touraine. The reforms will cost the state billions of euros a year but can be afforded through higher worker and employer contributions, according to...

On Friday, French President Francois Hollande stated that the only way out of the ongoing crisis in Syria was the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which would require an increase in international pressure and more UN sanctions. "The regime of Bashar al-Assad has behaved in an unacceptable and intolerable manner and has committed acts which disqualify it," Hollande told a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. "No solution to this crisis is possible without the departure of Bashar ..."

  With the right-wing UMP party predicted to lose upcoming parliamentary elections, former interior minister Brice Hortefeux and other French conservatives are embracing recently departed president Nicolas Sarkozy. As conservative leaders in France contemplate a likely defeat in parliamentary elections in June, some among them have rallied around an unlikely figure: defeated former president Nicolas Sarkozy.  The Friends of Nicolas Sarkozy Association was formally established in Paris on Wednesday, fuelling ongoing speculation about the uncertain future of France’s political right. Sarkozy, who lost the May 6 presidential runoff to Socialist rival François Hollande, repeated before and after the vote that he...

<p>This photo was taken at La Bastille Plaza in Paris, during the election celebration for the comrade socialist president Hollande. See any French flags? Anywhere? Actually, there is ONE towards the bottom right. The other flags are in order of appurtenance, Palestinian (2 flags top right+1 center left), Algerian, Turkish (towards center), Syrian (towards left of pic + below Palestinian flag), Moroccan (w. star in center), and European Union flag. The other flags I can’t recognize, there are also Syndicates or Unions’ flags. That's France in a nutshell.</p>

The French aided the Americans in their revolution against their British oppressors. Now Benoît Pous-Bertran de Balanda, the descendant of a French general who fought for the Americans, is trying to help his wealthy countrymen escape what he calls the tyranny of a new Socialist government primed to severely tax the rich. And France’s loss could be New York’s gain. Mr. Pous-Bertran de Balanda, 30, is a broker for wealthy French clients looking to buy apartments in Manhattan. With the election of the Socialist François Hollande as president this month, the wealthy in France are suddenly scrambling for places to...

Campaigning for France's parliamentary elections officially begins Monday in what is expected to be a fierce battle between left and right. Without a majority in the lower house, President Hollande will struggle to deliver on his campaign promises. The battle to take control of France’s National Assembly begins in earnest on Monday when the four week campaign period is officially launched. The Socialist Party is hoping to follow up the presidential triumph of François Hollande by gaining a majority in France’s lower house when the elections take place over two rounds on June 10 and 17. Although poll numbers look...

New French president wastes no time in bowing down to Islam – BANS PORK from Presidential Elysee Palace And you thought Sarkozy was an Islamopanderer. Not even in office for a week and Francois Hollande has banned all dishes containing pork products from all government offices, in deference to France’s demanding and perpetually offended Muslim population. How long before he unbans street prayers and burqas? Revolts in Europe (H/T Susan K) Effective immediately, the new French head of state never again will allow pork to pass his lips…or the lips of his staff, other government officials, or foreign guests. With...

Valérie Trierweiler faces an uncommon predicament. Twice married and twice divorced, she covered French politics as a journalist for more than 20 years with no inkling that she would one day become France’s first lady, certainly not when she fell for François Hollande, a jovial, unglamorous leftist politician who hardly seemed like presidential material. “I almost want to laugh when I think of it,” Ms. Trierweiler said in a telephone interview. But Mr. Hollande was elected on May 6 and was sworn in on Tuesday, and now Ms. Trierweiler — whom he calls “the love of my life” — is...

François Hollande has been sworn in as president of France, becoming the first Socialist leader in 17 years to occupy the Elysee Palace. He named close aide Jean-Marc Ayrault as his PM. Mr Hollande is now to visit Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Mr Hollande called for "a compromise" over the German-led focus on austerity as the way out of the eurozone crisis. Stock markets and the euro have fallen amid continuing political uncertainty in Greece. The handover of presidential power in France is a strange mixture of tradition and improvisation. There is tradition in the quasi-monarchical ceremonies, such as...

Francois Hollande was this morning sworn in as the new Socialist President of France - before getting drenched on an embarrassing open-topped drive up the Champs Elysee. The 57-year-old was inaugurated in a simple ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris, nine days after defeating the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy in a nationwide election. But it was during his 'triumphant' drive up France's most famous avenue that everything started to go wrong. As he poked his head out of the sunroof of a Citroen DS5, heavy rain started to pour, and there was no effort made to pull back the sunroof.

The French economy did not grow at all in first three months of 2012 and the previous quarter's growth was cut, in a blow to new president Francois Hollande. Official figures released on Tuesday showed that French GDP growth was 0pc in the three months through March . Growth in the last quarter of 2011 was revised to 0.1pc from 0.2pc. Official statistics agency INSEE said the economy grew by 1.7pc overall in 2011. Inflation rose 0.1pc on a monthly basis after a jump of 0.8pc in March. Year-on-year inflation dipped to 2.1pc, back to the level seen in mid-2011....

France's new Socialist president owns three holiday homes in the Riviera resort of Cannes, it emerged today. Francois Hollande, 57, who “dislikes the rich” and wants to revolutionise his country with high taxes and an onslaught against bankers, is in fact hugely wealthy himself.

France's new Socialist president owns three holiday homes in the glamorous Riviera resort of Cannes, it emerged today.The 57-year-old who 'dislikes the rich' and wants to revolutionise his country with high taxes and an onslaught against bankers is in fact hugely wealthy himself. His assets were published today in the Official Journal, the gazette which contains verified information about France's government. To the undoubted embarrassment to the most left-wing leader in Europe and a man who styles himself as 'Mr Normal', they are valued at almost £1million. It will also reinforce accusations that Hollande is a 'Gauche Caviar', or 'Left-Wing...