Here's our summary of the key news the weekend in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news that there have been elections in France - the first round of their presidential elections - and as expected the Socialist candidate came out on top, with sitting President Sarkozy second.
The closeness of this first-round result will come as a relief for Sarkozy as he was widely expected by the media to be trounced.
What was surprising was the strength of the far right vote for Marine Le Pen - she gained 20% of the vote, but in coming third she is excluded from the runoff on May 6.
The next fault-line in the battle to save the euro shifted over the weekend from weak southern debtor nations to a strong northern creditor nation. Holland's government has collapsed because the coalition there cannot agree on the cutbacks required to meet the EU deficit targets.
The Dutch may be rich, but they are currently running a deficit way above the EU standards. It needs to get its deficit down to 3% on GDP but is facing a 5% shortfall. The 'austerity' approach demanded by the Germans is not acceptable to the smaller anti-EU Freedom Freedon Party in that coalition.
There is political trouble in Australia too - the Gillard government has lost its speaker to a sex-and-expenses scandal and their one vote majority may well come under threat if that ex-speaker is forced to resign from parliament. Latest polls show the government would lose both houses if an election were held today.
The NZ dollar starts the week at US$0.8180 and the TWI is at 72.85.
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3 Comments
..... if there is one thing which boggles the tiny Gummy mind aboot the French presidential election , it is that the only guy who campaigned head-on with the financial mess that France is in , the centralist Frog .... had his vote collapse ......
The successful candidates , focused on immigration issues ... and steered clear of finance ..
.... France is deep in the poodle poo-poo .... socialism has bankrupted the economy ... contrary to Bernard's article that socialism has delivered greater benefits to the French people , than capitalism has to the Americans ..
... the French are just a whisker away from the faecal material impacting upon the oscillating wind device ..
Crikey GBH if this goes pear shaped on the French runt....Bernard will have to ditch all that excess luggage he'd intended to outfit the staff with....the red berrets....The gay paris' tee's....the pink satin pants replicas as worn by Louis XV.... what a waste.
Never mind though ,one thing we're not short on here is fans and fecal material......why,I just sent one as a gift basket to Maurice the other day.
...... if Alex , David & Gareth want that sorta stuff , all they gotta do is join the NZ Labour Party .
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