François Hollande

Pardon for battered wife highlights paradoxes of French system of government

France — Analysis

President François Hollande has just granted a full pardon to Jacqueline Sauvage, a woman who killed her husband after he had continually beaten her and sexually abused their daughters. Hubert Huertas says the decision to act having hesitated for so long over the pardon sums up Hollande's presidency. He also argues that the case illustrates the limits of French democracy and highlights the issue of judicial scandals.

Hollande pardon for French woman jailed for murdering violent spouse

France — Link

Jacqueline Sauvage, 69, who was twice convicted for shooting dead her husband after decades of his violent attacks and sexual abuse, including against his own daughters, has been pardoned by President François Hollande.

France challenges German veto over Greek Christmas bonus row

France — Link

French president said wrong to prevent Greece from taking “sovereign decisions” to pay pensioners a one-off bonus, despite German anger.

France's PM Manuel Valls expected to launch presidential bid

France — Link

Self-styled socialist strongman has been preparing a potential bid for weeks and with President Hollande out of the running now has his chance.

'Hollande and Valls have broken the Left'

France — Report

Mediapart was present at a public meeting at Nanterre, west of Paris, to discuss the forthcoming presidential election when the news broke that President François Hollande would not be standing for re-election in that contest. Many of those present in the hall were supporters of the Left who had voted for Hollande at the 2012 election. Some were quick to voice their dismay at his presidency's record, while the majority expressed general indifference and the meeting quickly resumed. As Mathieu Magnaudeix reports, it was a sign of just how irrelevant the president had already become to many ordinary voters.

Why François Hollande chose not to stand for re-election

France — Analysis

Under attack from within his own political camp, President François Hollande announced on Thursday night that he will not be standing for re-election in France's presidential elections next year. His decision, announced live on television, followed a period of high tension in the highest echelons of the state during which the head of state had come under fire from his own prime minister, Manuel Valls. Mediapart's Lénaïg Bredoux reports on what led the socialist president to take this momentous decision, the first time under France's Fifth Republic that a president has chosen not to seek a new term.

François Hollande will not seek re-election as president of France

France — Link

President made surprise announcement in emotional live statement on TV, saying he was conscious of “risks” to French Left if he stood again.

Why Fillon's win has thrown down the gauntlet to the entire French Left

France — Analysis

The crushing win in Sunday's conservative primary by former prime minister François Fillon shows that the French Right is not worried about its electoral opponents, writes Mediapart's Hubert Huertas. In choosing the most hardline candidate with the most radical austerity programme since the end of World War II, right-wing voters have delivered a message of supreme confidence. As far as they are concerned, it is as if left-wing opposition no longer exists. So how, he asks, will the French Left respond?

France's ruling socialists scramble to avoid split after Fillon win

France — Link

After PM Valls initially suggested he might quit and stand against President Hollande in party primary, he later said he would stay in his job.

French PM Valls raises prospect he could challenge Hollande in election

France — Link

In interview Valls did not rule out extraordinary possibility of him running against his own president in the Socialist Party primaries in January.

Hollande mourns loss of 'towering' Castro

France — Link

French president, who met former Cuban leader in May 2015, said Castro 'incarnated the Cuban revolution' - including its later 'disillusionment'.

French jobless total dips - setting stage for Hollande election bid

France — Link

Unemployment total eased back slightly in October to two-year low, giving support to French president's pledge to turn labour market around.

Why Nicolas Sarkozy was sent packing by the Right's voters

France — Analysis

It is both a defeat and a humiliation. Having finished third in the Right's primary election on Sunday to choose a presidential candidate for 2017 and thus eliminated from the race, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has seen his political strategy torn to pieces. He has, in effect, been sacked by his own electorate. The unprecedented democratic election on the Right has instead witnessed the victory of hardline conservative and former prime minister François Fillon. Mediapart's editor François Bonnet analyses what led to a tumultuous night in French politics that now seems certain to mark the end of Sarkozy's political career.

France and UN warn Trump on 'irreversible' climate treaty

International — Link

French President François Hollande who, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was attending a meeting of almost 200 nations in Morocco on ways to slow global warming, said US 'must respect the commitments it has undertaken' with last year's UN pact to combat climate change, which president-elect Donald Trump has called into question.

French opposition MPs seek to impeach Hollande

France — Link

Members of Parliament from the French conservative opposition party Les Républicains have signed a motion for the impeachment of socialist president François Hollande over comments he made in a recent book of conversations with two journalists in which the MPs allege he 'seriously violated defence secrecy'.