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PARIS (AP) The day after Francois Hollande rode to power in France on a slogan of "change now," the conversation in Europe was already different Monday: Austerity had become a dirty word.

What replaces it, though, was anything but clear.

The newly powerful in France and Greece want to roll back the spending cuts and tax increases that have defined Europe's response to its 3-year-old debt crisis. But campaign rhetoric is likely to prove more extreme than any real-world reversal of the budget tightening.

World financial markets took Europe's latest round of political upheaval in stride, convulsing early and then recovering. The continent's uncertain future including the possibility of Greece leaving the euro was causing anxiety but not panic about the threat to the global economy.

But there is hardly unity in Europe.

Sunday night, Socialist president-elect Hollande celebrated his victory over Nicolas Sarkozy by vowing, "Austerity can no longer be inevitable!"

On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gently pushed back.

She rejected Hollande's call to renegotiate a treaty signed last month on tougher action to control government deficits. "We in Germany, and I personally," she said, "believe the fiscal pact is not up for negotiation."

Still, she stressed the importance of French-German cooperation and her willingness to meet soon with Hollande.

Economists said that while the anti-austerity winds are bound to stir up short-term political instability, especially in Greece, they could eventually bring some financial calm.

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Austerity is a dirty word in Europe but what next?