Francois Hollande Will Not Seek Re-Election

There are already eight left-wing and environmentalist presidential candidates.

Francois Hollande has announced he will not seek a second term as France’s president.

Hollande, 62, had endured some of the lowest ratings of any post-war French president.

He conceded that he was unable to unite his deeply divided Socialist Party behind his candidacy ahead of the presidential election in April and May next year.

(AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File). But she allowed that “perhaps” there could be a Trump effect in the French election. But his presidency has been anything but normal.

As I explained the other day, there is a large middle ground available between the two presidential front-runners, François Fillon and Marine Le Pen. France has been under a state of emergency amid fears of further attack. As commander-in-chief, he flexed France’s military muscle from the Mideast to Mali. He is the first president to throw in the towel in at least five decades.

“You know, I don’t believe in this left-right fracture”.

All the while, unemployment has continued to hover around 10%.

Hollande has said for months he was unsure whether he would run again.

“I’ve decided not to be a candidate to renew my mandate”, the Socialist leader said in a live televised address.

He said his only concern was “the superior interest of this country” and that he could not stand for “the break-up of the left”.

It was a stunning announcement for its emotion and lucidity – but also since it reflected courage for a lifelong politician to admit his failings and walk away.

The main question until now was who would be Le Pen’s opponent in the second round next year, but Hollande’s decision not to run doesn’t increase the left’s chances in the short term.

Mr. Hollande came to power in 2012 on a promise to do away with austerity in the eurozone and push growth-friendly stimulus to bring down unemployment. In January 2014 he was photographed by paparazzi going by scooter to a flat near the Elysee where he was conducting an affair with actor Julie Gayet.

However, Myard praised Hollande’s decision to withdraw, pointing that otherwise it could be a political suicide for the president. But often, his positions were muddy.

In a statement shortly after Mr. Hollande’s announcement, Mr. Valls stopped short of saying he would run for president.

Hollande’s path to the presidency was long overshadowed by more charismatic figures.

But his approval ratings are at an all-time low for a president, at around 4 percent.

Will Valls be able to invent a new Socialist narrative? First former president Nicolas Sarkozy was knocked out of the conservatives’ primary, and then runaway favourite Alain Juppe was beaten to the party’s nomination by Fillon.

“I can not accept that the left drift apart, or breaks up”, he said.

Ironically, both Francois Fillon of the Republicans (center-right party) and Marine Le Pen of the National Front are admired by many conservatives on the right for reasons unrelated to their positions on Russian Federation.

There has been tension between Hollande and prime minister Valls, who raised the possibility in a weekend interview that he could be a candidate in the election.

“History will allow perspective over the actions of the 5 years that are coming to a close”.