France has voted to move in a new direction — socialist President-elect Francois Hollande has declared his victory a new start for Europe. In Greece, the coalition that has run that debt-plagued country for the last six months also lost its majority.

Final results from France’s presidential election show Francois Hollande narrowly defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy with 51.62 per cent of the vote.

Interior Ministry figures released Monday morning show the outgoing Sarkozy garnered 48.38 per cent of the vote, giving Hollande a winning margin of 1.13 million votes.

Voter turnout was 80.34 per cent, about the same as in the first round of voting April 22.

Hollande is pledging to buck Europe’s austerity trend and NATO’s timetable for Afghanistan.

His allies are now jockeying for government jobs. Sarkozy’s conservative party is turning its sights to upcoming parliamentary elections to try to hold onto its majority despite a wave of support for the left.

Meanwhile, the election in Greece, which has resulted in a split Parliament — where no party looks like it will be able to form a government.

The conservative New Democracy and socialist Pasok parties that governed as a coalition for the past six months were pummeled to the benefit of more extreme parties of the right and left.

The socialist Pasok party suffered the biggest retreat. Its share of the vote collapsed from around 43 per cent in the last election in 2009 to a little over 13 per cent.

A period of uncertainty looms for the bailed-out country, which is in its fifth year of recession and has over half its youth out of work following big spending cuts and tax increases in return for crucial international bailout funds. If no government can be formed that can command a majority in Parliament, another general election within the next two months seems possible.

With more than 99 per cent of the vote counted, conservative New Democracy led with 18.9 per cent and 108 of Parliament’s 300 seats. Party leader Antonis Samaras, who backs Greece’s bailout commitments for austerity, will launch coalition-forming talks later in the day.