#France, au contraire

#Socialist Party top functionary-turned-President of France, François Hollande, expects sweeping gains in parliamentary elections tomorrow (Sunday) while Europe braces for the consequences.

The French Left is feeling its oats after more than a decade in the wildnerness.

Its ascendency to power could not come at a worse time for L'Hexagone and the house of cards known as the European Union (EU).

Undercutting NATO
On top of the four French soldiers killed this weekend, Hollande vows to cut-and-run from Afghanistan in July. The speedy retreat is set for the end of the year.

NATO's credibility will be in tatters by the time its operations wrap up in the SW Asian country.

Undercutting Germany-led EU
The "Mer-kozy" relationship between Paris and Berlin is ruptured.

The twin engines of the pan-European vision from the beginning at the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, France and Germany cannot be farther apart than now.

Hollande wants to outspend Sarkozy against the tide of imposed austerity on EU states as the entire project is called into question because of its rocky economic foundation - socialism. It has never worked wherever tried.


The split between France and Germany on the future of the EU dooms the already teetering house of cards.

Undercutting France
A political hack without any policy experience, Hollande continues to steer France to the fiscal cliff.

As southern neighbor Spain nears yet another bank bailout for the eurozone, Hollande intrepidly pushes ahead with risky economic schemes.

He has already fulfilled a campaign commitment to rollback the retirement age to 60 from 62, nixing a moderate Sarkozy policy switch. This, when the socialist states of the EU cannot afford their welfare states now.

Madame "35 Hours Work Week" Martine Aubry, a party rival and new Socialist leader, and with estimable credentials in capitalist economics, urges higher taxes because the French do not pay enough now.

The classic Socialist economic elixir comes to France (welcomed by the voters no doubt) as capital flight speeds up before the brewing storm wrecks the country.

Conclusion
Elections have consequences.

The French grew tired of the Right and its antics.

While the Socialists were a minority for over a decade for good reason - voilá - they are back. There is no change from the confiscatory slow-growth policies from the past.

President Hollande is ill-equipped to lead L'Hexagone and those around him even less.

National politics still dictate the course of the EU despite the hopes of its founders of a pan-European project of "one for all and all for one."

Now finally reality bites the quixotic EU plan. "Everyone for himself" is now the slogan as long as German taxpayers do not tire of subsidizing their neighbors.

France's swing to the Left will only hasten the EU's demise.

*** Peace through strength.