Francois Hollande narrowly defeated Nicolas Sarkozy to become elected as the French president. Mr Hollande comes from a socialist background and has called for an EU wide push for growth as opposed to following Germany by means of increased austerity. The EU markets may not take well to the election of Mr Hollande who will be pushing against the norm. Mr Hollande is committed to cutting the French deficit and has proposed increased taxes of up to 75% on the rich.