With 100 days to go before the first round of the French presidential elections, Socialist Party candidate François Hollande is still baffling observers and rivals alike. In the wings for over a year now, Hollande has pulled off a tour de force by imposing his strategic slow tempo on the political debate, displaying a singular virtuosity in the art of fuzziness.
Hollande, 57, a Member of Parliament and President of the General Council of the Corrèze département, has adopted a very presidential posture, travelling the land surrounded by journalists as he meets and greets the French. But he has yet to outline even a semblance of a policy programme. His “presidential platform”, as he christened it at the inauguration of his campaign headquarters on the Avenue Ségur in the very chic 7th arrondissement of Paris, won’t be divulged till “late January”.
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