Ex-president Hollande makes surprise comeback in French election

Former French Socialist president François Hollande on Saturday (15 June) said he is to stand again for parliament in legislative elections, the latest political twist after his successor Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called snap polls.

Macron’s dissolving of parliament after the victory of the French far right in European parliament elections has swiftly redrawn the lines of French politics. A new left-wing alliance has emerged and the main right-wing party’s leader has announced he is prepared to back an alliance with the far right.

But it is far from sure that the fortunes of the far right will diminish in the legislative elections. On Saturday, a quarter of a million people protested in France, according to police, against the prospect of the far right coming to power.

Hollande, France’s president from 2012-2017, left office with record levels of unpopularity and is detested by parts of the radical left. Even the Socialist leadership regards him with suspicion.

He said he would stand as an MP for the southwestern Corrèze department for the New Popular Front, a left-wing grouping formed for the elections that includes Socialists, hard-left, Greens and Communists.

‘Be of service’

“An exceptional decision for an exceptional situation,” Hollande told reporters in the department’s main town of Tulle, explaining his surprise comeback.

“I am not seeking anything for myself,” he insisted, after a flurry of recent media appearances sparked speculation he might be eyeing a return to the Elysée Palace itself. “I just want to be of service.”

Hollande has already backed the new broad left-wing alliance, saying that we “must all do everything to make sure the far right does not come to power in France”.

He is not the first president to run for legislative elections after leaving the Elysée Palace. In 1984, three years after his defeat against François Mitterrand in presidential elections, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing was elected MP for the Puy-de-Dome department.

Officially, the Socialist Party reacted coolly to the move with the head of its election commission Pierre Jouvet simply saying that it “takes note” of the candidacy.

But one senior party figure, asking not to be named, said they were “devastated” by the news while admitting: “We said we wanted the broadest possible left wing.”

The elections, with a first round on 30 June and second on 7 July, were called by Macron after the far right National Rally (RN) trounced his own centrist ruling party in this month’s European elections, recording more than double its vote.

‘It could happen’

The new left-wing coalition faced its first crisis meanwhile after prominent MPs including Alexis Corbière, Raquel Garrido and Danielle Simmonet from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party found they had not been put forward to stand again.

LFI figurehead Jean-Luc Mélenchon retorted that such candidacies did not exist “for life” and the pool of figures had to be “enlarged”.

The nationwide protests Saturday were further spurred by the stunning move this week by the Republicans right-wing party leader Eric Ciotti to seek an election pact with the RN.

From Bayonne in the southwest to Nice in the southwest, from Vannes in the west to Reims in the east, demonstrators mobilised against the prospect of a victory for the far right and the possibility that RN party leader Jordan Bardella could become prime minister.

“I thought I would never see the far right come to power and now it could happen,” said Florence David, 60, who took part in the Paris protest.

“No need to vote RN to love France,” was among the slogans used.

Two years ago Hollande said an alliance of the left could kill his socialist party.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

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