World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The European election results are in.  In France, the Socialist candidate, Hollande, defeated the incumbent Sarkozy.  Sarkozy’s defeat is not unexpected–any sitting President facing the economic choices France faces would have a hard time winning.  President Hollande will have a very difficult time establishing the necessary relationship with Chancellor Merkel of Germany.  There will be rough times for the EU.  In Greece, the results were inconclusive suggesting that another election will have to be held in a few months.  Not surprisingly, the conservative New Democracy part, led by Antonis Samaras, won the largest share of the votes.  But the Socialist left party, PASOK, ended up in third place, edged out by the Radical Left Coalition (Syriza).  Most depressing, Golden Dawn, the far right party, got enough votes to enter Parliament for the first time.  The EU, the ECB, and the IMF will have a hard time figuring out how to deal with the new government.