France, Francois Hollande | featured news

Francois Hollande was greeted by a thunderstorm in Paris and storm clouds gathering over the euro zone as France's first Socialist president in 17 years was sworn in on Tuesday before flying to Berlin to plead his case for less austerity in Europe.

Francois Hollande, the Socialist "Mr Normal" who will be sworn in as French president next week, says he is worth almost 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million), considerably less than his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.

Socialist Francois Hollande swept to victory in France's presidential election on Sunday in a swing to the left at the heart of Europe that could start a pushback against German-led austerity.

The battle between Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande and President Nicolas Sarkozy could well go down to the wire.