"The men and women who are elbowing for senior posts in Francois Hollande’s new French government reflect a range of political trajectories. But one thing they share is Hollande’s view of socialism as free-market social democracy — a pragmatic ideology in which nationalizations, clenched fists and the hammer and sickle are things of the past.
As a result, analysts here say, the policies that Hollande will follow when he takes over as president on Tuesday are unlikely to disrupt Europe’s political and economic systems or upset France’s relations with the United States. One of the first appointments Hollande granted Monday was with U.S. Ambassador Charles H. Rivkin; Hollande also pledged that his first trip will be to Germany, which is headed by the conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The French Socialist Party has not always been that way. Francois Mitterrand’s election in 1981 was followed by a wave of nationalizations and the entry of Communist ministers into the government. But the economy tanked, and within three years, Mitterrand reversed course, re-privatizing state-owned industries and adopting a pro-NATO foreign policy that reassured even President Ronald Reagan.
That does not mean, the analysts caution, that things will stay as they were under outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative whom Hollande accused of coddling the rich with tax breaks and lightening the social protection obligations of big business. Hollande’s first steps as president, for instance, will be to cut his and his ministers’ salaries by 30 percent, freeze gasoline prices, increase back-to-school subsidies for poor families and allow those who have worked for 41 years to retire at age 60.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/french-cabinet-hopefuls-share-francois-hollandes-pragmatic-socialism/2012/05/08/gIQATKo8AU_story.html
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