Before he ran for the Socialist Party nomination in 2011 François Hollande was an identikit politician: son of a left-wing Catholic mother and avidly right-wing father, degree from Sciences-Po, brilliant énarque, father of four (with Ségolène Royal), bon viveur and party machine man, tracing a line from Mitterrand through Jacques Delors to Lionel Jospin. When Jospin became prime minister in 1997 and had to resign his post as head of the PS, he urged the membership to elect Hollande as his successor. Hollande ran and won the ballot against Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In the same year he retook the seat in the Assembly that he’d lost to the right a few years earlier. He’d been punished, he reasoned, for neglecting his parliamentary voters in favour of party business.

LRB 13 September 2012 | PDF Download