Alexis Delafontaine / Photo credits: ESTELLE RUIZ / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
On the occasion of the release of his book, “Notre Europe”, an illustrated work aimed at children, François Hollande is embarking on a Tour de France, to meet his growing audience. The one who left the Élysée in 2017 is intriguing in the Socialist Party, so much so that some of those close to him hope for his return to politics.
They are in the minority in the Socialist Party, but François Hollande’s supporters are not giving up. Recently, the wind seems to have turned to the left. The Nupes has aged, its victories and its admirers are becoming a distant memory, and some socialists want to definitively turn the page. Especially since divisions are widening within the left alliance, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon is falling in the polls.
Many left-wing elected officials therefore hope for the return of the former President of the Republic, who has become the 3rd favorite political figure of the French in the barometer of Paris Match, like the socialist François Kalfon: “He has the desire, the possibility more today than yesterday, and if he thinks he can play a role, I think he will.”
A majority opposed to his return?
Presumably, a majority of socialists do not take this return seriously. “Go to the streets, Hollande is hated,” complains a party executive. The rose party even fears seeing François Hollande hamper the progress of Raphaël Glucksmann, just three months before the European elections. One of his former ministers concludes: “the legacy of his five-year term has still not been digested by the French.”