The victory of the socialist candidate for the French presidential election of Nicolas Sarkozy is the eleventh leader of the ousted euro area since the outbreak of the crisis and the implementation of austerity policies imposed by Germany and aimed at the curb. 

"I'm sure in many European countries Caa was a relief, a hope, that finally the idea of ​​austerity could no longer be inevitable "said Francois Hollande, in a speech at his election night.

"That's what I say as soon as possible to our European partners and first in Germany," he said.

Francois Hollande has been negotiating a pact designed to complement growth of the fiscal pact, signed in early March by 25 of the 27 countries of the European Union, a of his campaign themes. 

His election of Francois Hollande with 51.6% against 48.4% in the outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy, argued that German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not lift all the political uncertainties that will last at least until the legislatures of 10 and 17 June

In Greece, the results of parliamentary elections confirm the expected scenario of a sharp fall in two main formations.

The conservative New Democracy and PASOK Socialists, who run alternately in decades, pay their support for draconian austerity measures taken since early 2010 in exchange for international financial assistance. 

SETBACKS FOR MERKEL

The breakthrough of the Coalition of the Radical Left hostile to the austerity and the entry of small parties in parliament, whose far-right "Golden Dawn", will make very difficult to find a majority and likely to fuel speculation about a renegotiation of the latest bailout plan or to an output of Greece in the euro area.

Fears deemed excessive by the economists of the investment bank Barclays Capital who point out that the Greeks remain overwhelmingly favorable to the euro but do not rule out political instability that would require the new elections later this year. 

"The risk is that non-European investors found a mistrust vis-à-vis the euro area rather marked," however, warns Philippe Waechter, an economist of the company ; Management Natixis Asset Management.

In Germany, the Christian Democrats (CDU) suffered another setback in losing the electoral state of Schleswig-Holstein region where the formation of Merkel saved her worst score since 1950.

The vote next week in the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous nation, will also be closely watched to assess the popularity of the policy conducted by the Chancellor and the accession of German voters to European solidarity. 

The partial municipal Italy, which will continue Monday, are a test on more than nine million voters, or 20% of the electorate, the government expert Mario Monti, again full cure austerity.

The first election of the post-Berlusconi give the measure of the distrust of the Italians against their political leaders to a year of parliamentary elections in May 2013.

The electoral cycle in May will end with the Irish referendum on the new European fiscal pact, already ratified by three EU countries including Greece.

SHORT RESPITE

After a short respite allowed by the injection of more than one.000 billion euros of liquidity between late December and early March by the European Central Bank, tensions on sovereign debt are quickly reappeared.

Investors are worried because of the growing political and social pressure against austerity plans which they fear above all that they do not favor a relapse into recession economies most weakened by the crisis and with them the entire euro area.

If Spain, officially fallen into recession in first quarter, is in sight, the gap between the wages offered by the sovereign debt of Germany and that of almost all ; other European countries has increased in recent weeks. 

European policymakers have however begun to recognize and formally accept a lesson of economic history that no country wants out of a debt crisis by focusing only on austerity, this strategy has always resulted in either a depression or a default.

From the European Council in January and more at the March, the EU officials had stressed the need to complement fiscal consolidation by "measures determined ; are to stimulate growth and employment ". 

They had then discussed several tracks, as a better mobilization of structural funds, a means of strengthening the European Investment Bank or the possibility of bond issues at European level in order facilitate private financing of major projects, referring to the definition of terms in June of that support growth.

The willingness of the new French president throughout his campaign to promote European growth initiative in this context had met with a favorable in both countries weakened ; s like Italy and the European Commission but also in Germany and even the European Central Bank (ECB). 

Its intention to renegotiate the pact budget has however met with strong opposition, especially from Germany who does not intend to return to the priority given to fiscal consolidation.

His call for a more active role for the ECB to stimulate the economy through lower interest rates or direct loans to countries in difficulty also faces hostility from Germany.

POSSIBLE COMPROMISE

Even before his election, Francois Hollande, however inflected speech suggesting that the renegotiation of the pact would be part of budget negotiations with its European partners. 

The president-elect has also been careful to avoid referring to possible Eurobonds, of which Germany does not want to hear because they would constitute a first step towards pooling of European public debt that Berlin rejects.

Francois Hollande now prefers to discuss project requirements, an expression consistent with that used by other heads of state and government of the EU.

A compromise is therefore possible, but the size and financing of a possible growth strategy remain unclear. 

A mounting tensions on sovereign debt would leave the ECB in the immediate front line but also exacerbate the pressure for a stronger commitment on his part to alleviate the costs of funding all States in the euro area and encourage growth.

If he felt that the euro area needed a "Growth Pact", the ECB president also stressed that support for the activity should not be detrimental fiscal discipline.

"Recent comments by Mario Draghi, defending the idea of ​​a growth strategy implemented by European governments is primarily a way to avoid a debate on the mandate of the ECB could be refocused on growth, "say the economists and Exane BNP Paribas.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that there was "more likely to collapse of the euro", but that Europe was "recovering", warning that any "loosening" in the reduction of deficits would convey to France "the fate of Spain."

"The risk of implosion of the euro no longer exists, but Europe is recovering, it is a reality and we have no room for error," the president said on RTL candidate. According to him, "the minute we let up the pressure on spending cuts, deficit reduction, debt, France experienced the fate of Spain."

"France has raised 8 billion before yesterday (Wednesday, ed) to finance its debt. It did so in a historically low, below 3%. Spain, at the same minute, borrows to finance its debt, twice the price of France. The same causes produce the same effects, "he said.

"During the 2007 campaign, Ségolène Royal, PS candidate, praised the example of Spain, and Mr. Holland was received" during the election campaign "by one Prime Minister (Jose Luis Rodriguez) Zapatero," former Spanish Prime Minister, Socialist. "I do not know if the Spanish example is still relevant," he added.

All economists polled by Reuters had expected the central bank does not increase its program of "quantitative easing" (QE) beyond the 325 billion pounds (394 billion euros ) previously announced.

Recent indicators, including the latest PMI figures released this week, seemed to reflect a rebound in activity after the contraction of the last quarter of 2011. 

But British manufacturing output posted its biggest drop in nearly a year in February (-1.0%), taking forecasters against the foot.

Industrial production, wider, however, remained on an upward trend, which should be sufficient to ensure an increase in gross domestic product in the first quarter after the contraction experienced in late 2011.

Economists now monitor the evolution of inflation, still above the 2% target of the central bank and that it could announce an extension of buyback program securities.

At 4:16 p.m., the action of the oil giant posted the largest decline in the CAC 40, yielding 6.57% to 38.31 euros, its lowest level in three months. The title acknowledges its biggest drop since December 2008 and saw its market capitalization and nearly melted almost six billion euros.

Total, by far the highest weight of the ACC, led the Paris index, which yielded 0.68% while the other major European markets were stable and the sector index Europé in commodities advanced 0.53%.

At this stage, investors are more concerned about the impact of leakage on the group's production and its consequences on the environment and the prudent play while waiting to get an idea pre Cise of the magnitude of the disaster.

"Investors apply the precautionary principle in a situation still uncertain, in memory with the recent accident that affected BP," said Romain Burnand, co-director of Moneta Asset Management. 

The explosion and sinking and the Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico, eleven had died in April 2010. Some 4.9 million barrels of crude oil had escaped from the Macondo well, drilled on behalf of the "major" British Petroleum. After the disaster, BP had lost more than 52% of its stock value in less than two months.

"With the memory of Macondo, the market remains very nervous about this kind of news until the problem is not quantified," says one trader.

"This event will impact Total's production and creates a risk of pollution, limited at this stage, but not yet identified," he says, noting that the group is still undecided in his faç ; we deal with the incident.

TWO OPTIONS

Total has indeed explained explore all possible options to deal with the gas leak on the platform Elgin-Franklin, including drilling a relief well, an operation that could take six months.

"There are two options for intervention. One is to drill a relief well, which could take about six months. The other is an intervention on the platform to seal the well (…) what would be a faster option, "he told Reuters David Hainsworth, safety manager, health and environment at Total Exploration & Production UK

. "We plan to decide on a course in the coming days," he In addition to mobilizing added

. 10 to 20 engineers, the group has engaged the services of Wild Well Control, society that occurred during the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010

. Total said Monday it has stopped production and have evacuated its staff on site (238 people), after the leak occurred Sunday. 

The platform was producing nine million cubic meters of gas per day, equivalent to 3% of UK production of natural gas and 60,000 barrels per day of light crude.

The gas cloud that formed around the platform, located off Scotland to 240 kilometers east of Aberdeen, has forced Shell to evacuate employees of two neighboring platforms for safety reasons.

The leak has formed a cloud dense enough to be visible to other platforms in the North Sea. Shell has decided to suspend, as a precaution, to drill on one of them.

The environmental consequences of leakage of natural gas condensates are much less serious than those of oil spills, has informed the British Minister of Energy.

An exclusion zone of sea and air, however, was declared around the platform, said Total.

The deficit of state budget has decreased by 0.9 billion euros in January over one year to 12.5 billion euros, thanks to the windfall of allocating 4G mobile frequencies, said Friday the Budget Ministry. The state expenditure were however up to 31 January from a year earlier, but this progression, "consistent with the prediction," is due to "an increase in the rate of recognition" earlier this year, ensures Bercy in a statement.

Expenses (general budget and levies on revenue) reached the end of January € 32.8 billion against 26.3 billion the same date of 2011, the departments' management in 2012 to start faster. " According to the ministry, "the expenditure has not been late and has already reached its cruising speed", and so do not see a skid. As for revenue (net of refunds and rebates), they improve to 23.4 billion against 20.5 billion at January 31, 2011. The net tax revenues are up as expected from one year to another, almost 8%, particularly with regard to corporation tax (33.6%).

"We took action," he said in Brussels at an event organized by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. "We can be an active partner throughout the world."

Sergio Marchionne has long argued already for reconciliations of carmakers to reduce their development costs and production.

Asked if he was looking for a European partner, he replied that "there are a lot more."

"I'm interested in everybody," he added.

With regard to Asia, especially Suzuki and Mazda, he said that there were "many opportunities to explore, including the following."

Sergio Marchionne has also reacted to the announcement of a possible alliance between General Motors and PSA Peugeot-Citroen.

"It is crucial that the European situation is treated. If the hypothetical alliance materializes, I hope he will consider the issue of overcapacity. "

The Nikkei gained 41.57 points to 9,595.57 and the Topix broader took 3.95 points (0.48%) to 829.35.

UPS said Friday it had offered € 9 per share to buy the Dutch group messaging, valuing it around 4.9 billion euros. TNT Express has rejected the offer, but discussions are continuing between the two groups.

The action was traded to TNT 9:50 GMT around 9.80 euros, up 54% from its closing price on Friday night (6.343 euros).

CGT plant at ArcelorMittal Gandrange (Moselle) presented Friday a draft EAF, which the union could "save" the site where a mill still operates steel supplied from Germany. "We offer ArcelorMittal to invest 120 million euros in the construction of an electric furnace to supply the local mill," said Jacky Mascelli to reporters, one of the leaders of the CGT at the factory Grandrange. "To produce the steel that we now come to Duisburg (Germany), we propose to use the scrap produced in the region, notably by the automotive industry," he said.  

For the CGT, the factory "integrated" (steelmaking-continuous casting-rolling) "will guarantee the sustainability of the site Gandrange" which still employ about 350 steelworkers, against more than 1,000 before the closure of the steelworks in March 2009 . The project presented Friday by the CGT looks like that the union had presented in March 2008 and which already provided for the construction of an electric oven "scrap all" to enhance the mill crowns and bars Gandhinagar, one of the only active for long products in Europe. The draft will now be "carried" by the Left Front, several representatives were present Friday in Lorraine.

Since its closure, the steelworks Grandrange is regularly pointed to by the left as one of the failures of the quinquennium of Nicolas Sarkozy. February 4, 2008, following his marriage to Carla Bruni and after a highly publicized visit to the factory Moselle, the president pledged to support the state "all or part of investment required "to keep the mill operating.

In Paris the CAC 40 index managed to stay above the threshold of 3,400 points, taking 0.14% to 3,409,90 points after spending much of the session negative territory. In Frankfurt the Dax gave 0.16%, while the FTSE in London lost 0.03% Pan-European and Euro Stoxx 50 index has been 0.25%.

A Greek government official reported that Athens was finalizing a document that outlines the reforms demanded by its lenders in exchange for the payment of the second plan bailout of 130 billion euros.

On currency markets, this information has boosted the euro, which reached its highest since mid-December.

The Stoxx Europe 600 bank of erased its losses to finish up 0.47%, with gains between 1.2% and 2.1% for BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole.

Conversely, UBS fell 1.44% in volume fed. The Swiss bank fears a difficult start after reporting lackluster figures for its fourth quarter 2011.

Swatch has lost nearly 4% after announcing an operating profit of 1.61 billion Swiss francs in 2011, slightly below expectations.

On Wall Street, the Dow, the S & P and the Nasdaq composite earn around 0.2% to 1630 GMT.

Bunds have erased their gains on the information of progress towards a political agreement with Greece on the financial rescue of the country.

The Euribor fell to new lows of 11 months in prospect of another massive injection of liquidity into the banking system by the European Central Bank, at its next auction paper to three years scheduled for late February. 

The euro has climbed more than 1% to 1.32708 to the dollar on the electronic platform EBS, its highest level since mid-December.

"The information from Greece to Athens remove an obstacle to alleviate short-term and massive credit risk, which is positive for the euro," noted Boris Schlossberg director of currency research at GFT.

Brent crude rose around 116 dollars a barrel, still carried by the cold wave in Europe, tensions on Iran's nuclear program and turmoil in Syria.