BBC News with Nick Kelly
The Socialist Francois Hollande has been elected president of France, defeating the
incumbent
Nicolas Sarkozy. He told a crowd in his home city of Tulle that his victory meant the French people wanted a different kind of country.
"Citizens on today, the 6th of May, the French have voted for change – they've elected me as the president of the republic." Mr Hollande said he respected the feelings of all of those who had not voted for him, and said he would be a president for all of France.
"The first duty of the president is to bring people together to enlist every one of us in a common effort to
tackle
our problems. And those problems are many, and they're serious. We must kick start our industrial output to get our country out of crisis; we must reduce the deficit and get our debt under control, we must keep our social model to make sure everyone has the same access to public services."
Earlier, Nicolas Sarkozy had acknowledged his defeat, telling his supporters that he'd called Mr Hollande to wish him good luck as France's new leader.
"France has a new president. This is the democratic choice of our republic. Francois Hollande is the president of France, and we have to respect that." Hugh Schofield has been following the events of the day and he sent us this report in Paris.
For French Socialists, it's a moment to
savor
. And parallels have been drawn with 1981 when Mr Hollande's mentor, Francois Mitterrand, also came to power on a promise of