* Swing to left comes at a crucial time for Europe
* Hollande beats Sarkozy 51.9 to 48.1 percent-projections
* Sarkozy concedes defeat, congratulates Socialist
* Hollande urges growth measures to temper austerity
* Greek election bombshell overshadows French celebration
(Updates with result projections, Sarkozy quotes)
By Lionel Laurent and Catherine Bremer
PARIS, May 6 (Reuters) – Socialist Francois Hollande swept
to victory in France’s presidential election on Sunday in a
swing to the left at the heart of Europe that could start a
pushback against German-led austerity.
Hollande was set to beat conservative incumbent Nicolas
Sarkozy by a decisive 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent margin, the
TNS-Sofres polling agency said in a projection based on a
partial vote count.
The president conceded defeat within 20 minutes of the last
polls closing at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), telling supporters he had
telephoned Hollande to wish him good luck.
“I bear the full responsibility for this defeat,” he said.
Sarkozy, punished for his failure to rein in record 10
percent unemployment and for his brash personal style, is the
11th successive leader in the euro zone to be swept from power
since the currency bloc’s debt crisis began in 2009.
Jubilant left-wingers celebrated outside Socialist Party
headquarters and in Paris’ Bastille square, where revelers
danced in 1981 when Francois Mitterrand became France’s only
other Socialist president.
But the celebrations may be overshadowed by a political
bombshell in Greece, where mainstream parties were hammered in a
parliamentary election that exit polls suggested may leave
supporters of Athens’ IMF/EU bailout without a majority, raising
doubts about its future in the euro zone.
Hollande’s clear win should give the self-styled “Mr Normal”
the authority to press German Chancellor Angela Merkel to accept
a policy shift towards fostering growth in Europe to balance the
austerity that has fueled anger across southern Europe.
His margin also positions the Socialists strongly to win a
left-wing majority in parliamentary elections next month, vital
to implement his plans for a swift tax reform.
If it wins that two-round election on June 10 and 17, the
Socialist Party would hold more levers of power than ever in its
43-year history, with the presidency, both houses of parliament,
nearly all regions, and two-thirds of French towns in its hands.
Even before the results were declared, cheering crowds
gathered at Socialist headquarters to acclaim the party’s first
presidential victory since Mitterrand’s re-election in 1988.
Many waved red flags and some carried roses, the party emblem.
In Bastille square, flashpoint of the 1789 French Revolution
and the left’s traditional rallying point for protests and
celebration, activists began partying two hours before the polls
closed and a swelling crowd cheered as giant TV screens relayed
the results.
Hollande, a mild-mannered career politician, had held a
steady lead for weeks after outlining a comprehensive programme
in January based on raising taxes, especially on high earners,
to finance spending and keep the public deficit capped.
As much as his own programme, he is benefiting from an
anti-Sarkozy mood due to the incumbent’s abrasive personal style
and to anger about the same economic gloom that has swept aside
leaders from Dublin to Lisbon and Athens.
“If Hollande is elected, we will have eliminated for personal
reasons someone remarkably competence, not just in France but in
Europe,” said Christian Fabry, 72, who was among Sarkozy
supporters waiting dejectedly in a Paris hall for the result.
SARKOZY NEEDED A MIRACLE
Sarkozy launched his campaign late and swerved hard to the
right as he tried to win back low-income voters that polls show
have ditched him for either the radical left or extreme right.
His aggressive rallies and promises to rein in immigrant
numbers, crack down on tax exiles and make the unemployed
retrain as a condition of getting benefits did not reduce
Hollande’s lead. Sarkozy surprised many by failing to land
anything like a knockout punch in a televised debate.
Although Sarkozy shaved a couple of points off Hollande’s
lead in the last days of a frenetic campaign, aides privately
acknowledged it would take a miracle to clinch a second term.
In two further blows in the last days of the race, far-right
leader Marine Le Pen, who came third in the first round with
17.9 percent, and centrist Francois Bayrou, who came fifth with
9.1 percent, refused to endorse the conservative president.
The election comes at a crucial time for the euro zone as
France, Europe’s No. 2 economy, is a vital partner for Berlin.
Hollande will join a minority of left-wing governments in
Europe and has vowed to renegotiate a budget discipline treaty
signed by 25 EU leaders in March, to add growth measures. Berlin
has made the pact a pre-condition of aid for struggling states.
Hollande plans to visit the centre-right Merkel in Berlin
within days of the election to discuss his ideas and planned to
speak to her by telephone on Sunday evening, said Jean-Marc
Ayrault, tipped as a likely Socialist prime minister.
While financial markets are warming to Hollande’s growth
agenda, given growing support elsewhere in Europe, analysts say
he would need to reassure investors quickly about his economic
plans as fears resurface over the euro zone’s debt woes.
France is grappling with feeble growth and 10 percent
unemployment, a gaping trade deficit and high state spending
that is straining public finances and was a factor in Standard &
Poor’s removing its triple-A credit rating.
French 10-year bond yields fell to 2.87
percent on Friday, a level not seen since early October. Yet
French debt could remain vulnerable to selling pressure, as
markets and credit rating agencies wait to be convinced of his
fiscal credentials.
Economists want Hollande to trim over-optimistic growth
forecasts and impose spending cuts, but political analysts say
this would be difficult with left-wing voters hoping he will
raise the minimum wage and reverse a recent sales-tax rise.
Little known outside France, Hollande will soon have his
diplomatic skills tested at a Chicago NATO summit in late May
and a Group of 20 summit in Mexico in late June. The former
Socialist Party chief has never held a ministerial post.
(Additional reporting by John Irish, Elizabeth Pineau, Morad
Azzouz and Heleen de Geest in Tulle, Ingrid Melander in Athens
and Geert De Clercq; Writing by Daniel Flynn and Catherine
Bremer; Editing by Paul Taylor)
