Former President of the Republic François Hollande confirmed his candidacy for the legislative elections in Corrèze on Saturday, an “unprecedented” decision because the “situation is serious”, with the prospect of a victory for the National Rally.
“In an exceptional situation, an exceptional decision”
“If I made this decision, it is because I felt that the situation was serious, more than it has ever been. Serious because the danger represented by the extreme right is today “The far right has never been so close to power since the Liberation,” the former head of state told the press in Tulle. “I did it, because it’s my whole life, it’s my commitment.” “In an exceptional situation, an exceptional decision,” he added, noting that it was “a fairly unprecedented decision for a President of the Republic to be able to run for a constituency and become a deputy again.”
Aged 69, the former president was a deputy for Corrèze from 1988 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2012. Invested by the local federation of the Socialist Party in the first constituency of the department as part of the New Popular Front, he explained that he three priorities, France, progress and Corrèze. He notably called for reviewing a “certain number of procedures and methods” to “revive” democracy, to reestablish the wealth tax, to revisit the pension reform passed last year or even to restore “all his place” in the public school which was “mistreated”.
Asked about the possibility that he would run for Matignon in the event of a victory for the left, he replied that he did not place himself “at all in any personal perspective”. “I was President of the Republic, I am not looking for anything for myself,” he added. “The gathering of the left was necessary, but the gathering of the French is essential, he further pleaded. In the first round, there is this union of the left. In the second round, the republican withdrawal must apply in all its rigor for any candidate who has put himself out of all discussions and relations with the extreme right,” he said.