THE FRENCH IN IRELAND:PERHAPS IT was because reports that François Hollande had won the French presidential election had been swirling for an hour beforehand, but when "51.9 per cent" flashed up on the giant TV screen in Dublin's Café en Seine, the cheer from the crowdwas short-lived and rather underwhelming.
It had nothing to do with support here for Nicolas Sarkozy – official figures from the first round of the election in April show that Hollande was the most popular candidate among the 5,309 French citizens registered to vote in Ireland.
The crowd gathered at the Dawson Street bar yesterday evening, for what the Ireland France Chamber of Commerce had billed its Soirée Elections Présidentielles 2012, was made up largely of young professionals and students, most of whom had voted for Hollande.
“Now might be a good time to think of going back to France,” beamed Diana Alves (24) from Paris, who moved to Ireland 18 months ago.
“I think people voted not so much because they wanted Hollande as their president, but because they wanted to get rid of Sarkozy.”
As she watched Sarkozy admit defeat on the screen, tuned to TV5 Monde, Ms Alves reflected on why he had never appealed to her. “From the beginning he just helped people in his own circle. People didn’t trust him any more.”
Charline Sauvourel (20), from Nantes, who works as a sales assistant in Dublin, shared that view. “Sarkozy only cared about the rich. I hope Hollande will be more fair. We needed a new face and a new way of governing, though I think it will be hard for Hollande as he will be a president of the left in a Europe where the right is on the rise.”
Mathieu Gorge, who has an IT company in Dublin, said the result showed that “France is more divided than ever”.
This, he said, will make it difficult for Hollande to govern. “But we needed change and I think Hollande will make a good president.”
Two men who work in finance, and did not want to give their names, said that while they were disappointed their chosen candidate, Sarkozy, was defeated, they did not anticipate anything radically different from Hollande.
“Let’s see what he can do,” said one. “There will be changes but I don’t expect a revolution. His will be a centrist agenda rather than a great swing to the left. Reality will prevail.”
His friend agreed. “Hollande is not such a bad solution, he’s not very left-wing anyway and the result was closer than expected,” he said. “We all know his first phone call will be to Angela Merkel. It will be interesting to see how that plays out, along with his attempts to negotiate the fiscal treaty for better growth.”
Salim Temtem, who works in the energy sector in Ireland, said he was torn between the two candidates. “It was 50/50 right up to election day but I went for Sarkozy in the end. Perhaps he made mistakes during his presidency but at least he has experience.”
Standing with him was Franck Penteng, who works for a French financial insurance company. “I voted for Hollande because it really is time for change in France,” he said.
“Hollande made a lot of promises during the campaign. Now we just have to wait and see how well he can deliver.”