Georges, François Gérard France’s current President, Nicolas Hollande, has been in power since 2012. While still a student at École Nationale d’Administration, he joined the Socialist Party of France and was rapidly noticed by party leaders. While still in his twenties, he landed his first big job as a special counselor to newly elected President Mitterrand. In the late 1990s, he was appointed First Secretary of the Socialist Party by Prime Minister Jospin, a position he held for eleven years. He also served as Mayor of Tulle at the same time. He had a brief period of decline from 2005 onwards, but he quickly recovered to earn his party’s candidacy for the 2012 Presidential election. He began implementing his electoral manifesto as soon as he was elected President. Hollande has a number of books and academic works to his name in addition to his political career. Hollande wrote about his personal and political journey in his final book, ‘Changer de destinies,’ which was published in February 2012. He is an atheist himself. He stated in an interview that he respects all religions but does not belong to any of them.
Childhood and Adolescence
François Hollande was born in Rouen, France, on August 12, 1954. Georges Gustave Hollande, his father, was an ENT who espoused a far-right political viewpoint. Nicole Frédérique Marguerite Tribert, his mother, was a social worker. François was raised as a Catholic as a child.
François began his schooling at Rouen’s Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-la-Salle. When he was thirteen, his family relocated to Neuilly-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb. He enrolled in Lycée Pasteur, a local secondary school, there.
François attended the École des Hautes Études Commerciales after finishing high school and graduated in 1975. He then went on to the Institut de Sciences Politiques before graduating from the École Nationale d’Administration in 1980. He also holds a Panthéon-Assas University bachelor’s degree in law.
Early Years in Politics
Hollande joined the Socialist Party while still a student at the École Nationale d’Administration in 1979, after being noticed by Jacques Attali, President Mitterrand’s advisor. After passing out, he became a councilor at the Cour des Comptes, a quasi-judicial body under the French government.
In 1981, Hollande ran for the seat of the French Assembly in the Corrèze department in central France, but was defeated. He was later appointed as an economic adviser in President Francois Mitterrand’s cabinet. Later on, he was assigned to work for government spokesman Max Gallo.
Hollande was elected to the local council of Ussel, a commune in the Corrèze department, in 1983. In 1988, he ran for and won a seat in the National Assembly from Corrèze. He was defeated in the 1993 election by a right-wing wave that swept the country at the time.
The Socialist Party was also going through a period of internal strife at the time, with several leaders attempting to exert their authority. Hollande attempted to bring the various opposing factions together. Lionel Jospin eventually took over as the party’s head. Hollande became the official spokesperson for the party under his leadership.
Then, in 1997, Jospin became Prime Minister of President Jacques Chirac’s cohabitation government. Hollande also reclaimed his National Assembly seat from Corrèze this year.
Jospin appointed Hollande to the office of First Secretary of the Socialist Party when he became Prime Minister, a position he maintained until 2008. Hollande’s position inside the party grew so strong at this time that many began to refer to him as the ‘Vice Prime Minister of France.’
Hollande was elected Mayor of Tulle, the capital of the Corrèze department, in 2001. He was not disconnected from national politics despite holding office for seven years. Hollande, on the other hand, became the party’s public face in the legislative election after Jospin’s shocking defeat in the 2002 presidential election and subsequent resignation.
The Socialist Party, on the other hand, had a difficult year in 2002. Despite the fact that Hollande was able to keep his Corrèze seat and limit the party’s loss to a degree, the party as a whole lost the election. Despite this, he was re-elected as First Secretary at the party’s 2003 conference.
In the 2004 regional elections, a left-wing coalition led by Hollande won twenty of Metropolitan France’s twenty-two regions, which include mainland France and neighboring islands.
Hollande became the obvious choice for the 2007 Presidential election after such a victory. However, a powerful group within the party objected, and his live-in partner Ségolène Royal was eventually nominated to run for the presidential election. Sadly, she was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy.
Hollande was re-elected as the Socialist Party’s First Secretary in 2005, but his influence over the party began to diminish after that. Many people held him responsible for Royal’s loss in the 2007 presidential election. He did not seek re-election after his time as First Secretary ended in 2008.
Hollande was elected President of the General Council of Corrèze in April 2008. He was re-elected to the same position in March 2011. Soon after, he declared his candidacy for the presidential nomination in the next primary election.
Election of a President
Hollande was up against five other candidates in this election, including IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his former partner Ségolène Royal. Despite being the overwhelming favorite, Strauss-Kahn had to withdraw from the race due to an alleged assault charge in New York. Hollande’s status as the frontrunner was cemented as a result.
Hollande received 56 percent of the vote for the party nomination on October 16, 2011. He also began to collect support from other candidates and prepare for the 2012 Presidential race.
On January 22, 2012, Hollande officially launched his campaign during a gathering in Le Bourget. It drew a crowd of 25,000 people. He presented his manifesto explaining his policies on January 26, 2012. There were sixty propositions in total.
The majority of the proposals were targeted at improving the country’s financial situation, while others, such as granting LGT couples marriage and adoption rights, were more socially relevant.
He emphasized in his manifesto raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, lowering the retirement age, generating 60,000 teaching jobs, and encouraging additional industries, among other things.
The incumbent president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was standing for his second and last term, was harshly critical of the platform. Hollande easily won the election after a close first round. On May 6, 2012, he was elected President of the French Republic with 51.7 percent of the vote. He also became the Co Prince of Andorra as a result of it.
Hollande’s first year as President of the French Republic was marked by economic issues such as high unemployment and poor consumer confidence. That was his first order of business. Simultaneously, he paid equal attention to foreign relations and met with leaders of several governments to address the Eurozone debt problem.
Hollande underlined the importance of spurring economic growth. By the end of the year, he had suggested a higher value-added tax, a new business tax credit, and state budget cuts.
Although there were signs that the country had formally emerged from recession by the end of the second year, the French economy remained stagnant.
At the same time, Hollande focused equally on a variety of other topics. On May 18, 2013, he signed a measure that legalized same-sex marriage and LGBT couples’ adoption rights. He also enacted labor changes that would make France more business-friendly while also being fair to its workers.
Hollande is equally committed to combating Islamist terrorism and has dispatched soldiers to Mali to drive the jihadists out. Following the ISIS attack on Paris in November 2015, Hollande declared France to be at war with the terrorist organization.
Hollande’s Major Projects
Hollande has legalized same-sex marriage and LGBT couples’ adoption rights while president. He has implemented labor reforms in order to increase the competitiveness of the French industry. France is one of the key members of the multinational coalition fighting ISIS under his leadership.
Personal History and Legacy
Despite the fact that Hollande has never married, he had a thirty-year live-in relationship with Ségolène Royal. Thomas, Clémence, Julien, and Flora were their four children. In 2007, the couple divorced.
After separating from Royal Hollande, he began seeing French journalist Valérie Trierweiler. She moved in with Hollande when he became President. She then became his official hostess and joined him on his foreign excursions. On January 25, 2014, the couple announced their separation.
Estimated Net worth
Francois Hollande is a French politician with a $2 million net worth. He is the current President of France, having been born François Gérard Georges on August 12, 1954, in Rouen, France.
Francois Hollande, a longtime leader of the Socialist Party, formally took over for Nicolas Sarkozy on May 15, 2012, when he officially accepted the office of the ‘head of state’ role, which he would retain for the next five years, until 2017.
Trivia
Hollande was ranked as the 16th most influential person in the world by Forbes Magazine in 2015.