I am surprised that nobody has yet posted about the results of Sunday’s second (and final) round of the French presidential election. François Hollande (socialist) defeated Nicolas Sarkozy (center-right?) by a few percent and will be in office shortly.
BBC : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17975660
Le Monde (major French newspaper): http://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2012/
Swiss Francophone TV : http://www.rts.ch/info/monde/3974074-l-election-de-francois-hollande-n-est-pas-une-revolution-estime-la-presse.html
I wonder what this means for negotiations about FATCA ? @Victoria? My gut feeling is that the socialists would be rather FATCA-friendly, but I believe that the socialists in France are also very interested in civil rights and anti-discrimination. I believe that somebody needs to be lobbying his new administration so that they can know the truth about what the US is trying to do (especially FATCA, but also FBAR and double taxation) before State and Treasury start trying to pull the wool over his eyes.
I just heard on CNN that Putin just won another term as President of Russia, and now the Constitution has been modified so that one can serve 6 terms.
