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Elections in a number of Europeans nations over the weekend were widely seen as popular referenda against harsh austerity measures adopted by governments in response to the fiscal crisis. In France Francois Hollande beat incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy, making him the first Socialist Party leader to be President in 17 years. On the same day, in Greece, elections yielded wins for a number of parties including the left-leaning Syriza Party which tripled its representation in Parliament. That party’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, has now been given a mandate to form a government in three days, after a failed attempt by Greece’s conservative parties to do so. Both Hollande and Tsipras have been outspoken critics of austerity measures that were prescribed for a number of European nations under the leadership of Sarkozy, and Germany’s Angela Merkel.

Even in Germany where the economy has been growing, voters in local elections there, voted out the ruling conservative party in a northern state. Meanwhile in Britain, local elections brought heavy losses for both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, also apparently in retaliation for heavy spending cuts. Prime Minister David Cameron however stood fast, appearing publicly over the weekend with Deputy PM Nick Clegg to assert that Britain plans to stick to the unpopular program of rollbacks. Global stock markets and the Euro both plunged in the opening hours of this morning in response to the election results.

GUEST: Steven Hill, political writer and author of “Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age.” Hill has just been traveling throughout Europe