(Image source: CenterBlog)

 

BY MIKKEL NOEL LANZKY

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

Often referred to as the quiet man, Francois Hollande has been selected as the French Socialist Party’s presidential candidate. Although he’s never held a position, he beat current party leader Martine Aubry for the nomination. Euronews reports it was a heated race.

“It’s been a hard-fought campaign with Aubry accusing Hollande of dodging the real issues and sounding right wing. As a former labor minister she also criticized Hollande’s lack of experience in government.”

Hollande is known for his relationship to Ségolène Royal, who was beat by Sarkozy in the last election. Hollande is viewed as a ‘nice guy’ and a consensus builder in the Socialist Party, which he led as chairman for eleven years. Al Jazeera notes, his jovial image could give him an edge.

“He’s also known for his sense of humour, very dry. And also the way they’d purchase power which is conciliatory, based on consensus, something that the French actually are asking from their politicians.”

For the general election in May 2012, Hollande is likely to square off with incumbent conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy. Although Sarkozy has yet to formally announce his candidacy for reelection, The Wall Street Journal notes the candidates are starting to prepare.

“Both candidates are busy re-adjusting their images […] Mr. Hollande has slimmed down and dyed his hair a darker shade of brown. His jocular low-key style has been replaced by dark suits and a suitably presidential stiff neck. Meanwhile Mr. Sarkozy is presenting himself as a less abrasive statesman.”

Hollande now has to perform a balancing act of both battling his opponent and unifying the party after the primary surfaced old rivalries. As the Economist notes:

“Mr Hollande now has to try to reconcile the left wing of his party […] with the social-democratic middle. […] Yet Mr Hollande also needs to appeal to the centre if he is to pick up voters disillusioned with Mr Sarkozy. This will mean some complicated political gymnastics, and will expose him to a charge of incoherence that the right has already identified.”

Hollande’s primary win has people talking outside France as well. Although Hollande is more moderate than runner-up Aubry, the conservative UK newspaper the Daily Mail is not thrilled at the prospects of an Hollande presidency:

“At a time when the French-German axis is tasked with extricating the continent from the morass of its calamitous European empire-building, the prospect of a French administration untrammelled in its Europhilia and fiscal complacency is one that would have consequences far beyond French borders.”

Polls conducted during the primary campaign have showed Hollande beating Sarkozy by as much as 20 percent. However, Sarkozy is known as a fierce campaigner, and the election is still months away.

Transcript by Newsy.com