NEWS:

Socialist Francois Hollande has won a clear victory in the France's presidential election — with an estimated 52% of votes in Sunday's run-off.

He has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m euros a year. He wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.

Analysts say the vote has wide implications for the whole Eurozone. Mr Hollande — the first socialist to win the French presidency since Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s — has vowed to rework a deal on government debt in member countries. He said was "proud to have been capable of giving people hope again", and that he would push ahead with his pledge to refocus EU fiscal efforts from austerity to growth. He has called for a renegotiation of the European treaty on budget discipline.

"Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option," he said.

(Mr Sarkozy, who had been in office since 2007, is the latest European leader to be voted out of office amid widespread voter anger at austerity measures triggered by the Eurozone debt crisis.)