Since Mr Lamy is a French socialist, Mr Chirac may be reluctant to reappoint him as France's lone commissioner.
Even before Mr. Hollande was elected last May, there was friction between the French Socialist and the German conservative.
If only Oskar could reach the same conclusion, they pine, rather than taking his beloved French Socialist Party as a model.
Mr Hollande may be moderate by the standards of the French Socialist Party, but that is mainly because his party is unreconstructed.
For a hint of French Socialist thinking, consider recent comments from some of the candidates who will contest a primary vote in October.
Earlier the French Socialist government set a deadline of 15 April for ministers to declare their assets, as part of the new transparency drive.
The euro slid for a sixth day versus the dollar after French Socialist Francois Hollande was elected president and Greek voters picked anti-bailout parties.
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Correspondents say the scandal is embarrassing for the French Socialist government which has made fighting tax evasion a priority, as it tries to cut public debt.
The case has set French political circles abuzz, as the international economist was widely considered the French Socialist Party's best hope to unseat President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's elections.
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David Martin , a British Labour MEP and fellow panellist, has taken over as rapporteur on the agreement, which entails steering the deal through tumultuous negotiations in the European Parliament, a task from which his predecessor, French Socialist MEP Kader Arif, recently resigned.
Yet such policies indicate hostility to entrepreneurship and wealth creation and reflect the French Socialist Party's failure to recognise that the world has changed since 1981, when capital controls were in place, the European single market was incomplete, young workers were less mobile and there was no single currency.
"Contrary to those who believe Sarko was the George Bush of France ('dragging' Obama into Libya, taking a hard line on Iran's nuclear program), and have hopes that the long-time head of the French Socialist Party will take a severe turn to the left, Hollande is likely to disappoint, " they said.
So, yes, we're getting back to a traditional battle between center-right and a traditionally socialist French politician.
The French-speaking Socialist Party may be particularly incorrigible, since it consists of local baronies all but impervious to central control.
Since then, Belgium's French-speaking socialist party teamed up with five other parties to form a coalition government making Mr. Di Rupo prime minister.
To be sure, French voters elected socialist Francois Hollande, who favors the European Union and reflexively supports the vision of its founders that has seen it evolve from a trade pact to a community to proto-political union.
Then came the Saint-Simonians, followers of a French aristocrat and Utopian socialist, who dreamed that global harmony would involve, among other things, better transport links (the builder of the Suez Canal was a believer).
Worse for Europe, the French had recently elected a socialist who was known to be hostile to wealth.
Nicolas Sarkozy's socialist challenger for the French presidency was the elegant Segolene Royal.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost to Socialist candidate Francois Hollande in the first round of the presidential elections, sparking concerns about the euro zone's debt crisis.
But the case put an end to Mr Strauss-Kahn's career at the International Monetary Fund and dashed his hopes of running as Socialist candidate for the French presidency.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist candidate for the French presidency, has said that rather than slashing costs, Mr Streiff should hire more workers in order to make up for the delays.
Mr Hollande - the first Socialist to win the French presidency since Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s - earlier gave his victory speech in his stronghold of Tulle in central France.
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Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy was elected the next French president Sunday, beating his Socialist rival Segolene Royal by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent and giving him a strong mandate for his vision of France's future.
Now the French president is trying to persuade his Socialist deputies to vote in favour of the very same pact, in treaty form.
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Several of those the French call the "elephants", senior Socialist figures rooted in the party's traditions, have fallen away in the presidential race.
But applying its own analysis of the so-called "fiscal multipliers" in different countries (the impact on growth of a given change in public spending or taxes) suggests that the socialist's approach would boost French GDP by about 0.2%, relative to President Sarkozy's plan, and cut France's public debt ratio slightly faster.
She said this week that it was up to the French people to decide whether she should stick to the Socialist manifesto, and that all ideas were welcome on her website.
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Hollande, speaking to French radio station RTL early Friday, suggested Sarkozy had miscalculated his Socialist rival's strength in the run-up to the vote.
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French colonial rule was handed over to a cosy coalition, which became the Socialist Party.
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