Born inRouen and raised in the Parisian suburb ofNeuilly-sur-Seine, Hollande began his political career as a special advisor to newly-elected PresidentFrançois Mitterrand before serving as a staffer forMax Gallo, the government's spokesman. He became a member of the National Assembly in1988 and was elected First Secretary of the PS in 1997. Following the2004 regional elections won by the PS, Hollande was cited as a potential presidential candidate, but he resigned as First Secretary and was immediately elected to replaceJean-Pierre Dupont as President of theGeneral Council ofCorrèze in 2008. In 2011, Hollande announced that he would be a candidate in theprimary election to select the PS presidential nominee; he won the nomination againstMartine Aubry before he waselected to the presidency (becoming also,ex officio,Co-Prince of Andorra) on 6 May 2012 in the second round with 51.6% of the vote, defeating incumbentNicolas Sarkozy.
Under Hollande's presidency, Paris hosted the2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, and his efforts to bring the2024 Summer Olympics to the city were successful. However, with domestic troubles – in particular due to Islamic terrorism – over the course of his tenure, and unemployment rising to 10%,[6] he faced spikes and downturns in approval rates, ultimately making him the most unpopular head of state under theFifth Republic.[7][8] On 1 December 2016, he announced he would not seek reelection in the2017 presidential election, for whichpolls suggested his defeat in the first round.
Hollande was born on 12 August 1954 inRouen.[9] His mother, Nicole Frédérique Marguerite Tribert (1927–2009),[10] was asocial worker, and his father, Georges Gustave Hollande (1922–2020),[11] was anear, nose, and throat doctor,[12][13][14] who "ran for local election on afar right ticket in 1959".[15][16][17] The name "Hollande" meant "one originally fromHolland" – it is mostly found in Hollande's ancestral land,Hauts-de-France, and it is speculated to beDutch in origin. The earliest known member of the Hollande family livedc. 1569 nearPlouvain, working as amiller.[18][19]
Hollande lived in the United States in the summer of 1974 while he was a university student.[23] Immediately after graduation, he was employed as a councillor in theCourt of Audit.[citation needed]
He went on to become a special advisor to newly elected President Mitterrand, before serving as a staffer forMax Gallo, the government's spokesman. After becoming a municipalcouncillor forUssel in 1983, he contested Corrèze for a second time in1988, this time being elected to theNational Assembly. Hollande lost his bid for re-election to the Assembly in the so-called "blue wave" of the1993 election, described as such due to the number of seats gained by the Right at the expense of the Socialist Party.
First Secretary of the Socialist Party (1997–2008)
As the end of Mitterrand's term in office approached, the Socialist Party was torn by a struggle of internal factions, each seeking to influence the direction of the party. Hollande pleaded for reconciliation and for the party to unite behindJacques Delors, thePresident of the European Commission, but Delors renounced his ambitions to run for the French presidency in1995. Former party leaderLionel Jospin resumed his position, and selected Hollande to become the official party spokesman. Hollande went on to contest Corrèze once again in1997, successfully returning to the National Assembly.
That same year, Jospin became thePrime Minister of France, and Hollande won the election for his successor asFirst Secretary of the party, a position he would hold for eleven years. Because of the very strong position of the Socialist Party within theFrench government during this period, Hollande's position led some to refer to him the "Vice Prime Minister". Hollande would go on to be electedmayor ofTulle in 2001, an office he would hold for the next seven years.
The immediate resignation of Jospin from politics following his shock defeat by far-right candidateJean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the2002 presidential election forced Hollande to become the public face of the party for the2002 legislative election. Although he managed to limit defeats and was re-elected inhis own constituency, the Socialists lost nationally. In order to prepare for the 2003 party congress inDijon, he obtained the support of many notable personalities of the party and was re-elected first secretary against opposition from left-wing factions.
Hollande was widely blamed for the poor performances of the Socialist Party in the2007 elections, and he announced that he would not seek another term as First Secretary. Hollande publicly declared his support forBertrand Delanoë, themayor of Paris, but it wasMartine Aubry who would go on to win the race to succeed him in 2008. Hollande was next elected to replaceJean-Pierre Dupont as the president of theGeneral Council of Corrèze in April 2008, and won re-election in 2011.
Hollande announced in early 2011 that he would be a candidate in the upcomingprimary election to select the Socialist andRadical Left Party presidential nominee.[24] The primary marked the first time that both parties had held an open primary to select a joint nominee at the same time. He initially trailed the front-runner, former finance minister andInternational Monetary Fund managing directorDominique Strauss-Kahn. Following Strauss-Kahn'sarrest on suspicion of sexual assault in New York City in May 2011, Hollande began to lead the opinion polls, and his position as front-runner was established just as Strauss-Kahn declared that he would no longer seek the nomination. After a series of televised debates with other candidates throughout September, Hollande topped the ballot in the first round held on 9 October with 39% of the vote. He did not, however, gain the 50% required to avoid arun-off election, and was obliged to enter a second ballot againstMartine Aubry, who had come in second with 30% of the vote.
The second ballot took place on 16 October 2011. Hollande won with 56% of the vote to Aubry's 43% and thus became the official Socialist and Radical Left Party candidate for the2012 presidential election.[25] All his main opponents in the primary – Aubry, Ségolène Royal,Arnaud Montebourg, andManuel Valls – pledged their support to him for the general election.[26]
Hollande's presidential campaign was managed byPierre Moscovici andStéphane Le Foll, a member of Parliament andMember of the European Parliament respectively.[27] Hollande launched his campaign officially with a rally and major speech atLe Bourget on 22 January 2012 in front of 25,000 people.[28][29] The main themes of his speech were equality and the regulation of finance, both of which he promised to make a key part of his campaign.[29]
On 26 January, he outlined a full list of policies in a manifesto containing 60 propositions, including the separation of retail activities from riskier investment-banking businesses; raising taxes on big corporations, banks and the wealthy; creating 60,000 teaching jobs; bringing the official retirement age back down to 60 from 62; creating subsidised jobs in areas of high unemployment for the young; promoting more industry in France by creating a public investment bank; granting marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples; and pulling French troops out of Afghanistan in 2012.[30][31] On 9 February, he detailed his policies specifically relating to education in a major speech inOrléans.[32]
Incumbent PresidentNicolas Sarkozy announced on 15 February that he would run for a second and final term, strongly criticising the Socialist proposals and claiming that Hollande would bring about "economic disaster within two days of taking office".[33] Opinion polls showed a tight race between the two men in the first round of voting, with most polls showing Hollande comfortably ahead of Sarkozy in a hypothetical second round.[34] The first round of the presidential election was held on 22 April. François Hollande came in first place with 28.63% of the vote, and faced Nicolas Sarkozy in a run-off.[35] In the second round of voting on 6 May 2012, Hollande was elected with 51.6% of the vote.[36]
He also appointedBenoît Puga to be the military's chief of staff,Pierre-René Lemas as his general secretary and Pierre Besnard as his Head of Cabinet.[39] Hollande's full Council of Ministers became the first ever in France to show gender parity, with 17 men and 17 women, and each member was required to sign a new "code of ethics" that placed significant restrictions on their conduct and compensation, above that of existing law.[40] The first measure enacted by the new government was to lower the salaries of the President, the Prime Minister, and other members of the government by 30%.[40]
Hollande's economic policies are wide-ranging, including supporting the creation of a Europeancredit rating agency, the separation of lending and investment in banks, reducing the share of electricity generated bynuclear power in France from 75 to 50% in favour ofrenewable energy sources, mergingincome tax and theGeneral Social Contribution (CSG), creating an additional 45% for additional income of 150,000 euros, capping tax loopholes at a maximum of €10,000 per year, and questioning the reliefsolidarity tax on wealth (ISF,Impôt de Solidarité sur la Fortune) measure that should bring €29 billion in additional revenue. Hollande also signalled his intent to implement a 75% income tax rate on revenue earned above 1,000,000 euros per year, to generate the provision of development funds for deprived suburbs, and to return to a deficit of zero per cent of GDP by 2017.[41][42] The tax plan proved controversial, with courts ruling it unconstitutional in 2012, only to then take the opposite position on a redrafted version in 2013.[43][44]
Hollande had also announced several reforms to education, pledging to recruit 60,000 new teachers, to create a study allowance and means-tested training, and to set up a mutually beneficial contract that would allow a generation of experienced employees and craftsmen to be the guardians and teachers of younger newly hired employees, thereby creating a total of 150,000 subsidized jobs. This was complemented by the promise of aid toSMEs, with the creation of a public bank investment-oriented SME's, and a reduction of thecorporate tax rate to 30% for medium corporations and 15% for small.
Hollande's government has announced plans to construct 500,000 public homes per year, including 150,000social houses, funded by a doubling of the ceiling of theLivret A, theregion making available itslocal government land within five years. In accordance with long-standing Socialist Party policy, Hollande has announced that theretirement age will revert to 60, for those who havecontributed for more than 41 years.
Hollande has also announced his personal support forsame-sex marriage andadoption for LGBT couples, and outlined plans to pursue the issue in early 2013.[45] In July 2012, Prime MinisterJean-Marc Ayrault announced that "In the first half of 2013, the right to marriage and adoption will be open to all couples, without discrimination", confirming this election promise by Hollande.[46][47] The bill to legalise same-sex marriage, known as Bill no. 344, was introduced to theNational Assembly on 7 November 2012. On 12 February 2013, the National Assembly approved the bill in a 329–229 vote.[48] The Right-wing opposed the bill. TheSenate approved the full bill with a 171–165 majority on 12 April with minor amendments. On 23 April, the National Assembly approved the amended bill, in a 331–225 vote, and following approval of the law by theConstitutional Council of France, it was signed into law by President Hollande on 18 May 2013, with the first same-sex weddings under the law taking place eleven days later.[49]
Demonstration against Hollande's labour reform inBelfort, 2016
As President, Hollande pursued labour reform to make France more competitive internationally.[50] Legislation for this, introduced in late 2012, after much debate passed the French lower and upper house in May 2013. The bill included measures such as making it easier for workers to change jobs and for companies to fire employees. One of the main measures of the bill allowed companies to temporarily cut workers' salaries or hours during times of economic difficulty. This measure took its inspiration from Germany, wherefurloughs have been credited with allowing companies to weather difficult times without resorting to massive layoffs. Layoffs in France are often challenged in courts and the cases can take years to resolve. Many companies cite the threat of lengthy court action – even more than any financial cost – as the most difficult part of doing business in France. The law shortens the time that employees have to contest a layoff and also lays out a scheme for severance pay. The government hopes this will help employees and companies reach agreement faster in contentious layoffs.[51]
Another key measure introduced was credits for training that follow employees throughout their career, regardless of where they work, and the right to take a leave of absence to work at another company. The law will also require all companies to offer and partially pay for supplemental health insurance. Lastly, the law also reforms unemployment insurance, so that someone out of work doesn't risk foregoing significant benefits when taking a job that might pay less than previous work or end up only being temporary. Under the new law, workers will be able to essentially put benefits on hold when they take temporary work, instead of seeing their benefits recalculated each time.[51]
As President, Hollande pursued reform to the pension system in France. The process proved to be very contentious, with members of Parliament, Labor Unions, and general public all opposed. Mass protests and demonstrations occurred throughout Paris. Despite the opposition, the French Parliament did pass a reform in December 2013 aimed at plugging a pension deficit expected to reach 20.7 billion euros ($28.4 billion) by 2020 if nothing were to be done. Rather than raising the mandatory retirement age, as many economists had advised, Hollande pursued increases in contributions, leaving the retirement age untouched. The reform had a rough ride in parliament, being rejected twice by the Senate, where Hollande's Socialist Party has a slim majority, before it won sufficient backing in a final vote before the lower house of parliament. French private sector workers saw the size and duration of their pension contributions increase only modestly under the reform while their retirement benefits were largely untouched.[52]
As President, Hollande promised an early withdrawal of French combat troops present in Afghanistan in 2012.[1][2] He also pledged to conclude a new contract ofFranco-German partnership, advocating the adoption of aDirective on the protection of public services. Hollande has proposed "an acceleration of the establishment of a Franco-German civic service, the creation of a Franco-German research office, the creation of a Franco-German industrial fund to finance common competitiveness clusters, and the establishment of a common military headquarters".[53] As well as this, Hollande has expressed a wish to "combine the positions of the presidents of theEuropean Commission and of theEuropean Council (currently held byJosé Manuel Barroso andHerman Van Rompuy respectively) into a single office [...] and that it should be directly chosen" by themembers of the European Parliament.[53]
On 11 January 2013, Hollande authorised the execution ofOperation Serval, which aimed to curtail the activities of Islamist extremists in the north of Mali.[1] The intervention was popularly supported in Mali, as Hollande promised that his government would do all it could to "rebuild Mali".[54] During his one-day visit toBamako, Mali's capital, on 2 February 2013, he said that it was "the most important day in [his] political life".[55] In 2014, Hollande took some of these troops out of Mali and spread them over the rest of the Sahel underOperation Barkhane, in an effort to curb jihadist militants.[56][57][58][59] On 27 February 2014, Hollande was a special guest of honor in Abuja, received by Nigerian PresidentGoodluck Jonathan in celebration of Nigeria's amalgamation in 1914, a 100-year anniversary.[60] In July 2014, Hollande expressed support forIsrael's right to defend itself during the2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, and told Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, "France strongly condemns these aggressions [by Hamas]."[61]
Leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine at theMinsk II summit, 11–12 February 2015
In September 2015, Hollande warned formerEastern Bloc countries against rejecting theEU mandatory migrant quotas, saying: "Those who don't share our values, those who don't even want to respect those principles, need to start asking themselves questions about their place in the European Union".[62]
Hollande with British Prime MinisterTheresa May in Paris on 21 July 2016
In 2014, French bankBNP Paribas agreed to pay an $8.9 billion fine, the largest ever for violatingU.S. sanctions against Iran at that time.[66] In October 2016, Hollande said: "When the (European) Commission goes after Google or digital giants which do not pay the taxes they should in Europe, America takes offence. And yet, they quite shamelessly demand 8 billion from BNP or 5 billion from Deutsche Bank."[67]
An IFOP poll released in April 2014 showed that Hollande's approval rating had dropped five points since the previous month of March to 18%, dipping below his earlier low of 20% in February during the same year.[68] In November 2014, his approval rating reached a new low of 12%, according to a YouGov poll.[69] Following theCharlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015, however, approval for Hollande increased dramatically, reaching 40% according to an IFOP poll two weeks after the attack,[70] though an Ipsos-Le Point survey in early February showed his rating declining back to 30%.[71]
Hollande ultimately registered the least popularity for a president of theFrench Fifth Republic. In September 2014, his approval rating was down to 13% according to an IFOP/JDD survey.[72] One year before the end of his mandate, in April 2016, his approval rating was placed at 14%, and surveys predicted that if he were to run for a second term, he would be defeated in the first round of the2017 presidential elections.[73] In November 2016, a poll found Hollande's approval rating to be just 4%.[74]
On 8 May 2012, Hollande took part in the commemorations of the end of the Second World War, alongside Nicolas Sarkozy, following the latter's invitation.[75]
On 10 May 2012, the Constitutional Council announced the official results of the presidential election; and on 15 May 2012, the transfer of power took place.[76]
While refusing to sit on theConstitutional Council, of which he is anex-officio member, François Hollande continues to comment publicly on French and international political life through several books and university lectures.[77],[78] In his books, he is critical of the domestic policies of his successor Emmanuel Macron, but also of his former left-wing political rivalJean-Luc Mélenchon, who led theleft-wing union in the 2022 legislative elections.[79]
He qualified, in first place, for a three-way second round against candidates from theNational Rally andThe Republicans,[84] and was elected with 43 percent of the vote in the runoff.[85]
A few months after his split from was announced, a French website published details of a relationship between Hollande and French journalistValérie Trierweiler. In November 2007, Trierweiler confirmed and openly discussed her relationship with Hollande in an interview with the French weeklyTélé 7 Jours. She remained a reporter for the magazineParis Match, but ceased work on political stories. Trierweiler moved into the Élysée Palace with Hollande when he became president and started to accompany him on official travel.[87]
On 25 January 2014, Hollande officially announced his separation from Valérie Trierweiler[88] after the tabloid magazineCloser revealed his affair with actressJulie Gayet.[89] In September 2014, Trierweiler published a book about her time with Hollande titledMerci pour ce moment (Thank You for This Moment). The memoir claimed the president presented himself as disliking the rich, but in reality disliked the poor. The claim brought an angry reaction and rejection from Hollande, who said he had spent his life dedicated to the under-privileged.[90]
On 4 June 2022, Hollande married Gayet in Tulle.[91]
Hollande was raisedCatholic, but became anagnostic later in life.[92] He now considers himself to be anatheist,[93] but still professes respect for all religious practices.[94]
Hollande is commonly nicknamedFlanby, a popular dessert similar toflan, as it embodies a political wobbliness and pudginess often attributed to him by his critics.[95][96][97]
^Erlanger, Steven (7 September 2010)."French Unions in National Strike on Pensions".The New York Times. p. A4.Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved4 December 2010.[Socialist party leader Martine] Aubry has presidential ambitions... Her rivals included the former leader of the party, François Hollande....
^Elkaïm, Olivia (5 April 2012)."François Hollande : des origines protestantes hollandaises".La Vie (in French).Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved3 February 2013. ("En décembre dernier, François Hollande confiait à La Vie : 'Je n'ai aucune pratique religieuse. Mais je respecte toutes les confessions. La mienne est de ne pas en avoir.'")
^Daneshkhu, Scheherazade (6 May 2012),"Sarkozy pays price for being crisis president",www.ft.com,Mr Sarkozy has frequently contrasted his own experience, dynamism and firm character with the lack of public office of his rural political rival, nicknamed Mr Flanby after a wobbly caramel pudding with a soft-centre
^Erlanger, Steve (13 April 2013),"The Soft Middle of François Hollande",www.nytimes.com,He used to be referred to as "Flanby," after a brand of wobbly caramel pudding, just one of a string of insulting nicknames for a convivial man considered always at the second rank of politics. He has been called "a living marshmallow" and "Mr. Little Jokes," and just last year, Martine Aubry, the head of the Socialist Party, described him as a couille molle, a nasty way of saying he has no guts
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Clift, Ben, and Raymond Kuhn. "The Hollande Presidency, 2012–14".Modern & Contemporary France (2014) 22#4 pp: 425–434;Online free
Gaffney, John.France in the Hollande presidency: The unhappy republic (Springer, 2015).
Goodliffe, Gabriel, and Riccardo Brizzi.France after 2012 (2015).
Kuhn, Raymond. "Mister unpopular: François Hollande and the exercise of presidential leadership, 2012–14".Modern & Contemporary France 22.4 (2014): 435-457.online
Kuhn, Raymond. "The mediatization of presidential leadership in France: The contrasting cases of Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande".French Politics 15.1 (2017): 57-74.
Merle, Patrick, and Dennis Patterson. "The French parliamentary and presidential elections of 2012".Electoral Studies 34 (2014): 303–309.
Wall, Irwin.France Votes: The Election of François Hollande (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.)
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