(REUTERS) PARIS – Socialist candidate Francois Hollande won France’s presidential election runoff on Sunday, beating President Nicolas Sarkozy by a clear margin, according to projections of polls.
Polling institutes predicted Hollande would win between 51.8 and 52.0 percent of the vote versus Sarkozy’s tally of between 48.0 and 48.2 percent. Hollande will become France’s first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995.
“Francois Hollande is President of France and must be respected,” Sarkozy told supporters shortly after the results were announced.