Bienvenue au Palais de l'Élysée!

By now it is safe to assume that the whole informed world knows that France has a new president- Bienvenue M. Hollande!

Oddly enough, this was just the topic of debate at my office yesterday : Hollande or Sarkozy ? “For sure, it will be Sarkozy” I thought. After so many voters had shown support for more right-wing candidates, their votes were certain to be piled into the Sarkozy column, non?  Non!

The surprising result (at least, it came as a surprise to me) led me to question whether the European public is perhaps undergoing its own social and political changes, which we have certainly had an abundance of in the Middle East, albeit not with the most desired consequences.

In Italy, just months ago, the “bunga-bunga” partying, escort escorting, flamboyant Berlusconi was tossed out in favor of the more reserved Mario Monti. I had asked an Italian colleague of mine what he thought of the replacement for Berlusconi. “Monti is well-respected in Italy,” he said, “he is an academic, a lot more reasonable and focused than Berlusconi”.

So, does this mean the French have had it, as well? Enough with the flair and tabloids, the model-turned-singer-turned-model-again-girlfriend-turned-wife (yes, Carla Bruni, that one!). I am not belittling the impact of domestic and international policies, nor the vulgarly obvious differences between left- and right-wing policies, but perhaps these are signs of an evolving European society demanding more responsibility and reality from its leaders in place of political conservatism coupled with overt decadence.

Disclaimer: this is NOT a politcal analysis piece, just random thoughts pieced together.