A surprise comeback! Former President of the Republic François Hollande confirmed this Saturday, June 15, his candidacy for the legislative elections in Corrèze, an “unprecedented” decision because the “situation is serious”, with the prospect of a victory for the National Rally.
“If I made this decision, it’s because I felt the situation was serious, more than it ever was. Serious because the danger represented by the extreme right is now proven. The extreme right has never been so close to power since the Liberation,” the former deputy for Corrèze (from 1988 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2012) told the press in Tulle.In an exceptional situation, an exceptional decision“, he added, noting that it was “a fairly unprecedented decision that a President of the Republic can run for a constituency and become a deputy again”.
Invested by the local federation of the Socialist Party in the first constituency of Corrèze as part of the New Popular Front, he explained that he had three priorities: France, progress and Corrèze. He notably called for reviewing a “certain number of procedures and methods” to “revive” democracy, to reinstate the wealth taxto return to the pension reform passed last year or even to give “its full place” to public schools which have been “mistreated”.
“I’m not looking for anything for myself”
Asked about the possibility that he would run for Matignon in the event of a victory for the left, he replied that he did not place himself “at all in any personal perspective”. “I was President of the Republic, I am not looking for anything for myself,” he continued.
Thursday evening, François Hollande, who is hated by part of the radical left and maintains frosty relations with the First Secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, said he was “favorable” to the union on the left under the banner of the New Popular Front to block the far right.
He had pleaded, in the second round, for support for the candidates best placed to “avoid the extreme right”, even if they are “LR or of the presidential majority”, defending a “principle of withdrawal” from the left on optionally. “We must all show responsibility“, “we must do everything to ensure that the extreme right does not come to power in France”, insisted the former president.
A “pathetic” candidacy for Dupond-Moretti
His candidacy comes as a surprise and the headliners of the left were discreet in their first reactions. According to a socialist executive, it was Bernard Combes, mayor of Tulle and friend of François Hollande, who had been invested. “Hollande was able to ask him to give him room […] A former president, we cannot refuse him the inauguration especially since he was correct during his television appearance”, by supporting the New Popular Front, begins this executive at AFP.
“What I am delighted about is that François Hollande intervened to say that he supported the union and the New Popular Front,” reacted the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet on BFMTV. “We said that we wanted the broadest possible unity of the left,” sighs a PS executive. The former head of state “is going to be elected, he is taking an easy constituency. We only have Ségolène (Royal) left, and we are a hit. I am devastated.”
In the majority, some gritted their teeth. “It is pathetic“, commented the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti on BFMTV. “I suggest that Mr. Hollande take as his deputy Philippe Poutou”, leader of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), also invested by the New Popular Front , “this will make a very nice team”.
François Hollande, 69 years old, is not the first President of the Republic to run for legislative elections after leaving the Élysée. In 1984, three years after her defeat against François Mitterrand, Valérie Giscard d’Estaing was elected deputy for Puy-de-Dôme under the banner of the UDF, garnering more than 63% of the votes in the first round.
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