Francois Hollande aiming for French presidency – despite record-low popularity after first term

Francois Hollande is aiming to become France’s president again, his allies have said, after he released a new book positioning himself as a credible alternative to the radical Left of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Mr Hollande, 70, a socialist who prides himself on being “Mr Normal” in the John Major vein, was among France’s most unpopular presidents when he left office in 2017 after one five-year term.

His approval ratings were so low – just 3 per cent wanted him to run for re-election in May 2014 – that he chose not to stand for a second term, paving the way for the election of Emmanuel Macron, his former finance minister.

Mr Hollande made the surprise decision to run in France’s July snap elections for the Left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) in the rural French Corrèze constituency, where he was elected as an MP. However, the elections resulted in a hung parliament.

The former president stood without informing Olivier Faure, the current head of the Socialist party, with whom relations have been execrable since Mr Faure gave his support to Mr Mélenchon.

The NFP’s largest single party is France Unbowed (LFI), whose figurehead is Mr Mélenchon, the ex-Trotskyite firebrand and a sworn enemy of Mr Hollande.

By way of explanation for joining the alliance dominated by his nemesis, Mr Hollande said: “It’s an exceptional decision for an exceptional moment.”

As president, he sparked international ridicule after being photographed on the back of a three-wheeled moped while taking breakfast croissants to actress Julie Gayet, who is now his wife.

Valérie Trierweiler, Mr Hollande’s girlfriend at the time of the alleged affair, later took her revenge for l’affaire du scooter with a bombshell memoir about the betrayal.

However, the former president has bounced back to such an extent that an Ifop poll placed him as France’s joint fourth most popular personality.

Analysts often likened him to a weeble, the children’s toy, which famously “wobbles but doesn’t fall down”.

In a sign of his growing popularity, the “love scooter” he used for this secret trysts with Ms Gayet was sold in May for more than €20,000 (£17,000) at auction, which was double its listed price.

He even agreed to sign a note confirming: “This scooter is the one!”

Mr Hollande has just published a book titled the Challenge of Governing in which he analyses the French Left’s fraught relationship with wielding power and the “duel” between two Lefts – one radical, the other more reformist.

He notes that “whenever the reformist Left has been stronger, it has enabled the Left to win and govern”.

But when the radical Left is stronger (than the reformist faction), “it prevents the Left from coming to power”.

A friend close to Mr Hollande told AFP that he was “paving the way” for a comeback and there was “no doubt” about his presidential ambitions, which always start with “a new book” in France.

He is “prepared to go to any lengths” to position himself as a “resort” figure in the 2027 elections to hoover up the centre ground between Mr Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen, the source said.

However, critics blame Mr Hollande for leaving the Socialist Party in tatters after he left the Elysée.

They say he betrayed the French Left after the 2012 election in which he branded finance his main “enemy” and proposed to slap a 75 per cent tax on salaries over €1 million, only to swerve Right and enact a pro-market labour law.

One Socialist MP said joining the NFP has helped him regain some Left-wing credentials and “wash away some of his poor image. It’s clever”.

The former French president offered a glimpse of his ambitions on Sunday by pointing out that Mr Mélenchon has “failed to reach the second round twice” in presidential elections and should throw in the towel.

Someone “close to the Socialist party” would stand a far better chance, he insisted, without naming names.

In April, Mr Hollande published a separate book explaining the European Union for children.

Asked why he was so popular with younger French people, he said: “For those aged between 18 and 25, I’m the president of their childhood. There was Father Christmas and the President. I was the President. They still like me.”

Whether that affection can extend to the rest of the French electorate remains to be seen.