Skip to main content
Hollande pays price of neoliberalism as left and far right gain
His Socialist Party administration's adherence to orthodox neoliberal policies gave victory to the conservative Union for a Popular Movement

French President Francois Hollande's failure to honour election promises on jobs has brought inevitably poor results in Sunday's first round of municipal elections.

His Socialist Party administration's adherence to orthodox neoliberal policies gave victory to the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and some gains to the racist National Front (FN).

Most striking was the FN's outright triumph in former mining town Henin-Beaumont in the Pas-de-Calais department, where its candidate Steeve Briois took 50.26 per cent of the vote and won the mayoralty.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Tom Mooney Company from the Lincoln Battalion, during the Spanish Civil War, Jarama, Spain, 1937
History / 24 February 2026
24 February 2026

CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history

IRON FIST: Mass exodus of Latin American migrants cross from Chile at the Santa Rosa border point in Tacna, Peru on Monday in a panic reaction at Jose Antonio Kast’s threats of expulsion
Politics / 3 December 2025
3 December 2025

Far-right forces are rising across Latin America and the Caribbean, armed with a common agenda of anti-communism, the culture war, and neoliberal economics, writes VIJAY PRASHAD