FRANCE: Socialist Party unites behind Presidential candidate Francois Hollande as he is attacked by the ruling UMP

Record ID: 731372

  • Title: FRANCE: Socialist Party unites behind Presidential candidate Francois Hollande as he is attacked by the ruling UMP
  • Date: 18th October 2011
  • Summary: POSTER SHOWING UMP LEADERS CAMPAIGNING PHOTO SHOWING NICOLAS SARKOZY CAMPAIGNING
  • Embargoed: 2nd November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA61JN4HWYUF52TV6SMQ7NJBDKP
  • Story Text: While the French Socialist party demonstrated unity behind their new presidential candidate on Monday (October 17), the ruling UMP questioned Francois Hollande's capability to challenge incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy.
    Hollande's dream to run as the French Socialist candidate in a presidential election next April, came one step closer on Sunday, when the 57-year-old beat Martine Aubry in a Socialist primary contest.
    But despite the fierce fighting in the run-up to the primaries, runner-up Aubry said that both she and and the other Socialists were firmly united behind their new candidate.
    "The only thing that counts for me is the collective battle. We now have a candidate, it's Francois Hollande, and the Socialist party will work with him completely, and will back him, it's the less we can do. And I am at work as soon as this morning to start on this," she said outside the party headquarters on Monday.
    Head of the Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008, Hollande has cut a down-to-earth and unflagging figure on the campaign trail this year since officially announcing in March he would run, one of the first among six Socialist candidates to do so.
    Party veteran, yet relatively unknown outside France, he has consistently topped opinion polls in recent months as the most likely next French president. He has pledged to be a "normal" president, in contrast to the flashy, impulsive style that rapidly earned Sarkozy the name "President Bling Bling" after he won power in 2007.
    But the ruling UMP on Monday questioned Hollande's ability to stand against the flamboyant statesman Sarkozy.
    "There is a big difference between Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande," UMP General Secretary Jean-Francois Cope said on Monday.
    "This difference is the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy is a real decision maker. Francois Hollande is not a decision maker. He is hesitating all the time, for everything. Nuclear questions, economic questions, social questions, security questions. It's impossible to have only one opinion from Francois Hollande. He is always hesitating between all kinds of positions, so we will prove and show to the French people how dangerous it is to choose the Socialist party," he added.
    Hollande has nurtured a sharper look with a drastic weight-loss diet, new spectacles and his face is more frequently tanned than in the past, but his CV has holes. Critics say he is a party apparatchik and note that while he is a seasoned local politician -- he is a member of parliament for the south-western department of Correze -- he has never held a national government post or run a corporation.
    Polls have consistently shown Hollande beating Sarkozy in a presidential showdown. Hollande proposes recruiting 60,000 state-employed school teachers if elected in a reversal of staff cuts under Sarkozy but has also gone to lengths to say he is no spend-happy leftist, vowing to reduce France's public deficit.
    Polls show voters reckon he may do a better job of steering the country though economic difficulty at a time when the euro zone debt market crisis has prompted governments to reduce spending and raised fears of a further economic slowdown.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Video restrictions: parts of this video may require additional clearances. Please see ‘Business Notes’ for more information.
Register