Patrick Kovarik / AFP - Getty Images

Francois Hollande after a campaign speech in Toulouse, France, on Wednesday.

Updated at 1:40 a.m. on May 7: France crowned Francois Hollande as its first Socialist president in nearly two decades in an election on Sunday.

Originally published on May 4: Understated, bespectacled and often clad in dull gray suits, he is nicknamed "Flamby" -- after a popular brand of caramel pudding. Meet Francois Hollande, the likely next president of France.

Largely unknown outside his own country, he is ahead in opinion polls by five to 10 points against the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and is poised to become France’s first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand, whom he served as an economic adviser.

The 57-year-old owes his candidacy to the downfall of the former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who had been the runaway favorite for socialists until sex scandals ended his professional and political career.

However, in a feisty TV debate Wednesday with Sarkozy, Hollande showed voters he is far from characterless.

During the debate, which lasted nearly three hours, Hollande claimed Sarkozy, 57, was using the global economic crisis as an excuse for not delivering on his promises.

"It's never your fault,” Hollande said. “You always have a scapegoat. 'It's not me -- it's the crisis that hit me.'"

Left-wing mom, right-wing dad
Born into a middle-class Catholic family in the city of Rouen, Normandy, Hollande’s views were shaped mostly by his social worker mother; he often disagreed with his father’s far-right views.

The young Hollande took an academic path well-trod by many French politicians, attending the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences-Po) and later the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), both in France’s version of the Ivy League, which produced seven of the past 12 prime ministers, according to The Economist.

He graduated from ENA in 1980, along with Segolene Royal, the woman who would become his partner of more than 20 years, mother of his four children and Socialist presidential candidate in 2007. That year, the two called it quits and Royal went on to lose to Sarkozy in the run-off.

Sarkozy fails to floor Hollande in France election television debate

Hollande and Royal never married, and for the past few years his partner has been French political journalist Valerie Trierweiler. She has said she expects to remain a journalist and a working mother if she becomes France’s first lady.

His love life may have been complicated, but Hollande's commitment to politics has been constant, and he proudly puts it on display in a campaign video posted on his website that touts his 30 years in politics. Set to a piano soundtrack, the roughly three-minute clip looks at “the victories, the defeats and the historic moments.”

“Nothing was given to me, nothing was entrusted to me, nothing was assigned to me,” Hollande is heard saying. “Everything I have, I took by right.”

'A rather dangerous man'
He now wants to take the presidency, and some worry about what that may mean for the future of France and Europe in general.

“Mr. Hollande evinces a deep, anti-business attitude,” writes Britain’s pro-business The Economist, adding that his hostility to change could undermine the Eurozone’s determination to pursue painful reforms that could help save the euro. “That makes him a rather dangerous man.”

Despite The Economist’s anxieties, the election is more of a referendum on how Sarkozy and his government have handled the economic crisis.

With unemployment at a 12-year high and France stripped of its AAA status by one credit rating agency, the Bank of France offered no solace for Sarkozy. Figures for growth were revised downward -- news that Hollande could benefit from, as he promises to forge a new economic direction for Europe with a drive to spend and thus promote growth.

This plan is in stark contrast to Sarkozy’s policy of financial discipline and austerity, a solution to the financial crisis also championed by Germany’s Angela Merkel.

Despite his promises of less austerity, Hollande has pledged to balance the budget in 2017, Bloomberg reported, while Sarkozy promised to reach the target a year earlier.

"We will keep to the fixed plan of reducing our public deficit to 3 percent [of GDP] in 2013," Hollande said in an interview with La Tribune. "It's France's word."

One of the ways he plans to achieve this is through higher taxes, including a 75 percent rate on income over 1 million euros ($1.3 million).

Some analysts, however, worry that weak growth will derail his goal and think Hollande should turn to sensible cuts in spending instead.

"People voting for Sarkozy are thinking about somebody who can lead in Europe and handle the crisis,” Dominique Reynie, professor at the Sciences Po, told Reuters. “Those who vote for Hollande are thinking about their own purchasing power and social well-being."

Serge Raffy, chief-editor of the French newspaper Nouvel Observateur and author of “Francois Hollande: A secret itinerary,” noted there was little enthusiasm and passion in “desperately rational” Hollande’s candidacy. 

“At least it didn’t cause illusions from the outset,” Raffy writes. “Francois Hollande will not disappoint if he wins. He can only surprise us.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Courtesy of Maria Gaidar

Harvard University student and anti-Putin activist Maria Gaidar, 29, previously served as vice governor of the Kirov region. She will help manage a crowdsourced website that monitors polling stations across Russia this weekend.

By Becky Bratu, msnbc.com

Maria Gaidar knows first hand about the consequences of being a political activist in Russia.

A fierce critic of Vladimir Putin and founder of the youth opposition movement DA! (YES! in Russian and and acronym for Democratic Alternative), Gaidar was accused by pro-government media last year of fleeing the country after being involved in a car crash that killed a 13-year-old girl. 

“I didn’t hit a girl,” the 29-year-old Harvard University student told msnbc.com.

Gaidar says she has also been detained after taking part in a peaceful dissenters’ march, but she refuses to back down. Gaidar remains a leader of anti-Putin organization The Other Russia as well as the opposition Union of Right Forces party.

“Why would people tolerate something forever?” she asked.

Putin in power until 2024? 10 key questions about Russia's election

But despite huge protests amid claims for fraud in the wake of December’s parliamentary elections, Gaidar is among the many Russians with little doubt that Putin will be re-elected as president when the country goes to the polls on Sunday. Putin served as president from 2000-2008 and then became prime minister when a constitutional bar prevented a third consecutive term as president. 

And while the message of tens of thousands who attended rallies in Moscow quickly went from one in favor of fair elections to a straightforward "Putin, go!", the country’s opposition movement has failed to put forward an alternative leader. It also hasn’t coalesced behind one of the four candidates running against him.

Meet the NBA tycoon who wants to be Russia's president

Gaidar credits prominent blogger Alexei Navalny for putting forward an important idea when he encouraged people to go to the polls and vote for anyone but Putin.

Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters, file

Opposition supporters take part in a rally in Moscow on Sunday. Thousands of Russians joined hands to form a ring around the city centre in protest against Vladimir Putin's likely return as president.

“The message is ‘we don’t want this anymore’ and the way to transmit this is by not voting for Putin,” Gaidar told msnbc.com.

However, that is unlikely to be enough to drive Putin from office.

Being an ocean and several time zones away won't stop Gaidar from doing to her part to try to ensure a fair vote this weekend.

Irregularities?
Gaidar will help manage a crowdsourced website that monitors polling stations across Russia. She said several thousand people have already signed up as monitors and she suspects irregularities will keep them busy on Sunday.

“Monitoring elections is the right thing to do,” she added. “[Putin] doesn’t have more than 50 percent of support.”

Gaidar says the opposition movement has so far focused on establishing fair elections, not finding leaders. Those who are the best opposition leaders are not always the best leaders of a country, she said, hinting at lessons learned following the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia.

“Right now the protest is very healthy,” said Gaidar, who is the daughter of former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar.
“This revolution is Russian and pragmatic. People understand what they want and they’re asking for it.”

'Party of crooks and thieves'
Among those leading the charge toward reform is Navalny, a 35-year-old lawyer and blogger who thrives on exposing corruption and often targets Putin’s United Russia party. He calls it “the party of crooks and thieves.”

Following December’s elections, Navalny and other activists took to the Web to post reports of the alleged abuses, sparking even more outrage. On the second day of rallies, Navalny was arrested on charges of obstructing traffic after giving a speech in front of thousands of protesters. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail.

“I think that corruption has been a constant irritant which kept on building along with resentment,” Navalny told NBC News' Harry Smith. “Putin’s mistake is that he engineered an electoral fraud in the city of Moscow so obvious and arrogant that it was taken by the people as a slap in the face.”

While Navalny was in jail, the rallies grew even larger. "Of course, we were very upset that we could not be there,” Navalny said. “But we could not believe that such things were really taking place in Moscow.”

Anton Golubev / Reuters, file

Prominent blogger Alexei Navalny, left, listens to opposition leader Garry Kasparov during a meeting on January 31.

Navalny was released on Dec. 21, and an even bigger protest followed on Christmas Eve.

“At the demonstration I said that right now we can go and take the Kremlin, which frightened many people. But it was true,” Navalny told Smith.

A laid-back Yankee in trouble in Putin's court

The activist said the government “did everything to make sure we did not exist.” He told Smith there is a car that always follows him around, and another that follows his wife.

“And it's very funny because they are changing plates on the cars but they are not changing cars,” he explained.

But Putin’s press secretary downplayed Navalny’s importance.

“[Putin] wouldn't over exaggerate his importance,” Dmitry Peskov told Smith.

If Putin wins on Sunday, he could run for another six-year term in 2018. A victory then would mean Putin had chalked up 24 years in power out of the 33 years since the collapse of Communism.

Generous social spending
While the anti-Putin movement is unlikely to change the results of this election, experts agree the protests have eroded Putin’s legitimacy.

Over the past decade, Putin benefited from a high approval rating, an economy that performed relatively well and an apolitical public that he kept under control through generous social spending.

“All three of those things are gone and not likely to return,” Timothy Frye, director of Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, told msnbc.com.

While the opposition has grown in recent months,  Putin continues to do well in the countryside, among older voters, the empowered bureaucracy and people who are dependent on the state for their livelihood, but he has lost the support of the middle class and the urban population fed up with the endemic corruption. At the same time, his campaign strategy has been to appeal to the core rather than court the opposition.

“If there is no rigging, he would probably win half of the vote anyway,” Maria Lipman, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment Moscow Center, told msnbc.com.

Russians rally for Putin -- and 2 days off work

Navalny has said he would participate in the political process if elections were open to anyone who wants to run.

Gaidar, who is currently pursuing a mid-career masters degree in public administration at Harvard and who previously served as deputy governor of the Kirov region, says she doesn’t have any political ambitions. Being a politician in nowadays Russia is like hitting your head against a wall, she said.

But Gaidar does plan to return home after she completes her studies and try to enable change within the system.

“In five to 10 years we’re going to live in a different Russia,” she said. 

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Bogdan Cristel / Reuters

A demonstrator holds a bone with the word "Resignation" on it during a protest against the government in central Bucharest on Jan. 18, 2012. Protesters demanded the resignation of President Traian Basescu.

Protests continued for a sixth day across Romania, as hundreds gathered in the capital city Bucharest and in about 40 other cities, calling for President Traian Basescu’s resignation and denouncing the government’s austerity measures and systemic corruption.

As night fell Tuesday, about 200 anti-government protesters gathered in downtown Bucharest, yelling slogans such as "Resignation!" and "Down with Basescu!" Officials reported the number rose to about 1,000 protesters by the end of the day.

Protesters have raged for several days over austerity cuts, falling living standards and widespread corruption. Gathered in freezing temperatures, they chanted "Freedom!,” holding banners reading "Hunger and poverty have gripped Romania!"

Some protesters waved Romanian flags with the center cut out, reminiscent of the 1989 anti-communist protests.

Live video from the protests in Bucharest's University Square.

Romania is one of the newest and poorest European Union members, but the country is not part of the Eurozone. Romania's economy shrunk more than 7 percent in 2009, and the country needed an International Monetary Fund bail-out to pay its public sector wages. To qualify for another installment of the IMF loan, Romania agreed to implement new austerity measures, including a 25 percent cut in public wages.

The cuts were characterized as “brutal and unthinkable in a West European country” by Andreas Treichl, the president of Austria's Erste Group, the largest foreign investor in the Romanian banking sector.

Officials said about 13,000 protesters hit the streets across the country since Friday. Police said they fined 247 people Monday, and 36 were charged with illegally carrying knives, vandalism or disturbing public order during Monday's protests in Bucharest and other Romanian cities.

The French publication Le Monde noted that, while the number of protesters is relatively modest, their actions represent a “shock” in a country where civil society seemed struck with apathy.

“It was an outburst,” Romanian freelance journalist Vlad Ursulean told msnbc.com. “The cynicism disappeared.”

Ursulean covered the protests in Bucharest on Sunday, watching closely as riot police clashed with protesters. Riot police used tear gas and batons against the demonstrators, some of whom hurled rocks at the police. At least 59 people were injured in the clashes, officials said.

While authorities said violence only erupted when soccer hooligans infiltrated the protests, Ursulean said the crowd of protesters was diverse and the soccer fans made up a small part of it. One of the protesters told the riot police he wouldn’t be in the street if he could afford to feed his daughter, Ursulean reported.

Prime Minister Emil Boc said on Monday the violence was “unacceptable.”

“Each citizen who protests and is unhappy concerns me,” he added on Tuesday.

Protests were sparked last week, when Raed Arafat – a high-ranking health ministry official – resigned in opposition to government plans to privatize the country’s medical emergency system. But the anti-regime sentiment grew quickly among the protesters, and demonstrations spread.   

The prime minister said Tuesday that Arafat, a naturalized Palestinian, will return to his job, in what was seen as a step to defuse the public anger at the government. But protests continued in spite of this development, hinting at “a deep-seated expression of the population’s frustration,” political science professor Lavinia Stan told msnbc.com.

“The protests have taken a life of their own,” Stan said. If they continue and remain peaceful, they could pose a serious problem to President Basescu and the government, she said. Local and parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place later this fall.

Opposition parties tried to capitalize on the protests, demanding early elections, but protests remain apolitical for now. A protest march led by the opposition is now scheduled for Thursday.

“Everything seems a lot like the Occupy movement in its early stages,” Chris Williamson, a Peace Corps volunteer who’s been living in Romania for almost two years, told msnbc.com.

“There are a lot of people who are angry about different problems, but there isn't a set goal or plan for anything.”

An IMF mission coming to Romania to review the country’s loan deal is still on schedule for Jan.25.