Hollande's victory has now been confirmed by the French media. See latest updates.
Officially, in France, people are still voting and the French law does not allow for polls or partial results to be published. However more and more foreign media are already announcing the victory of Socialist Party candidate François Hollande in the French Presidential race. Nicolas Sarkozy shall remain a one term petit president.
According to jssnews.com, reliable sources close to the Elysée palace and of the Ministère de l’Intérieur, who is organising the elections, Hollande comfortably won by at least 52%.
17h45 : Les sources de JSSNews, qualifiées d’excellentes (tant à l’Elysée qu’au Ministère de l’Intérieur), sont formelles : François Hollande remporterait 52% des suffrages face à Nicolas Sarkozy. Il devient ainsi le 10ème Président français de la Vème République.
Notez cependant qu’il existe une marge d’erreur de 1.5%… Ce qui ne serait pas suffisant pour permettre à Nicolas Sarkozy de garder son poste.
Translation (thanks to Samer).
Other foreign media are also confirming, with all early estimates putting Hollande between 52% and 55%.
Hollande supporters are already getting ready to party all evening on the Bastille square in Paris, where the previous socialist president François Mitterrand celebrated his own historic victory in 1981.
Hollande's victory marks a new era for France and for Europe. However, his presidency, much like Obama's, will be a difficult one with little margin for error, especially with an historically strong extreme right National Front electorate.
9:51 AM PT: According to http://www.lesoir.be/ , outgoing president Sarkozy has cancelled the party that were to take place at the place de la concorde where he had planned to celebrate his re-election.
9:54 AM PT: The early estimates distributed to both candidates indicate a Hollande victory of 52.6 %.
Notre correspondant à Paris nous informe que le premier sondage distribué aux partis donne François Hollande vainqueur avec 52.6 % des voix.
http://www.20min.ch/...
10:01 AM PT: TNS-Sofres estimates:
Une estimation TNS-Sofres donne François Hollande vainqueur avec 53,4% des voix.
10:05 AM PT: Estimates based on votes counted in polling stations that closed one hour ago. Large cities like Paris still have one more hour to vote.
François Hollande est élu président avec 52 à 53,3% des voix. D'après l'AFP, ces chiffres sont des estimations basées sur les premiers dépouillements des bureaux de vote qui ont fermé à 18H00.
10:23 AM PT: Les francophones ici peuvent s'essayer au sondage suivant (un vote alternatif pour le premier et unique tour pour ce mode de scrutin).
http://minguo.info/...
Les résultats ne sont pas très représentatifs (avec le vote Dupont-Aignan sur-représenté) mais c'est tout de même à la fois "fun" et aussi instructif si on analyse bien les résultats.
10:34 AM PT: Italian newspaper: Francia, François Hollande il nuovo presidente (h/t to beltane)
11:02 AM PT: As the last polling places have now just closed, French media are now reporting that Hollande won the French presidency with 51.9% of the votes. Those are still early (IPSOS) estimates. We are still many hours away from the official results from the government, but Hollande's victory is no longer in doubt.
11:18 AM PT: BBC: Socialist Francois Hollande 'wins French presidency' (h/t to Christian Dem in NC)
He got about 52% of votes in Sunday's run-off, according to projections based on partial results, against 48% for centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr Hollande would be the first French socialist president since 1995.
Analysts say the vote has wide implications for the whole eurozone. Mr Hollande has vowed to rework a deal on government debt in member countries.
The estimates were carried by French media after all polling stations closed at 20:00 (18:00 GMT).
Exuberant Hollande supporters have already converged on Place de la Bastille in Paris - a traditional rallying point of the Left - to celebrate.
11:45 AM PT: See the announcement made on French TV right when the polls closed, and see the reaction of the French people in the streets:
http://www.youtube.com/...
12:19 PM PT: Sarkozy concedes, quite graciously, actually. (see comment:
http://www.dailykos.com/... )
2:09 PM PT: Today's election feels like the end titles of a bad, five-year long movie: "The quinquennat" (the president's five year mandate):
Comment on the above video here.