France’s Socialist president is so unpopular many in his own party want someone else to run for the presidency next year. But the dearth of alternatives mirrors the sorry state of a party crippled by divisions and a gruelling spell in office, reports FRANCE 24.
Twice the France Inter anchor challenged François Hollande, and twice the embattled president dodged the question. At the third attempt, the veteran journalist finally got an answer. “Are you still left-wing?” he asked, yet again, during a feisty interview on February 19. To which Hollande replied, somewhat cumbersomely: “All my life has been the life of a man who is committed to the left and remains so.”
It is not uncommon for French presidents to try to raise themselves above the political fray. But the awkward session on France’s leading radio station highlighted the gulf that has emerged between the Socialist president and his base. Surveys have long shown that the vast majority of left-wing voters have lost faith in their president. Now a large chunk of Hollande’s own party has made it abundantly clear it wants someone else to run for president next year.
The incumbent French president traditionally represents his party in an election, without a contest. Hollande, whose approval ratings have sunk to a dismal 19%, says he has not made up his mind if he will run in the 2017 election. He has consistently repeated his pledge not to run if he fails to bring down unemployment, currently at an 18-year high of 10.6 percent.
While that is unlikely to happen given the sluggish economy, Hollande is still expected to seek a second term in office. But his ratings are so poor that, as things stand, he appears unlikely to beat either far-right leader Marine Le Pen or whichever candidate is chosen by the mainstream conservatives in primaries later this year.
Thomas Guénolé, a political analyst for Paris-based institute Vox Politica, said many in the media were “refusing to acknowledge the obvious: that Hollande is finished”.
He likened the embattled president to a faraway star that still appears to radiate but is in fact spent. “The only thing that can possibly save him is a miracle like the Sofitel scandal,” he argued, referring to the infamous hotel incident that destroyed Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s presidential hopes and turned Hollande into an unlikely frontrunner in 2012.