Elections are incredibly symbolic political events and no more so than in France. While groups of the French Left were celebrating the election victory of the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande in Place de la Bastille; the home of Right, Place de la Concorde, was empty. Exit Sarkozy. Nicolas Sarkozy was, for the first time since 1945, an unashamed President of the Right in France, campaigning in his successful 2007 presidential bid for a ‘rupture’ from France’s ‘failed’ economic and social model. Sarkozy saw his mission as reviving France from the mediocrity of the Jacques Chirac years by implementing unequivocal Rightist ideas. It is no wonder that Hollande has vowed to be a ‘normal president’. Hollande’s platform in many respects …