Hollande starts campaign

[Sheilbh]

French front-runner pledges to cut his pay by 30 per cent as he aims to become next president
Francois Hollande, the front-runner to become France's next president pledged to cut his and his government's pay by 30 per cent on Sunday, as he hit out at the rich while seeking to dispel niggling doubts he has what it takes to become his country's next leader.


Speaking in Le Bourget, Mr Hollande promised to cut his own pay by and that of government by 30 per cent if elected Photo: AP
By Henry Samuel, Le Bourget7:55PM GMT 22 Jan 20122 Comments

With just three months to go before elections, poll after poll suggests Socialist Mr Hollande will secure a comfortable victory over the unpopular Nicolas Sarkozy, his conservative rival and the incumbent.

But doubts persist even within the Hollande camp about his ability to make an all-important personal connection with the French and inject fervour into his campaign.

That emotion was present on Sunday at Le Bourget exhibition hall outside Paris as he stepped in front of 15,000 party faithful, onto a blue white and red stage emblazoned with "Change is Now" and to chants of "François President".

"All my life I have prepared for this function", he said, thanking his parents.

The jovial 57-year-old 's "Mr Normal" image worked to clinch party primaries but the French need to know he has the decision-making mettle for what is constitutionally the most powerful post of any Western democracy.

Saying a president could remain "ambitious for his country and humble for himself", he promised a radical change of leadership style from the showy Mr Sarkozy. "I stand by a simplicity that is not restraint but the mark of genuine authority," he told party members.

"I like people while others are fascinated by money ... I will be the president of the end of privileges," he said, accusing Mr Sarkozy of presiding over the "degradation" of France just days after the country lost its coveted triple A credit rating for government loans.

In a stridently Left-wing discourse, he said: "My real adversary has no name, no face, no party ... it's the world of finance."

Saving details of his manifesto until later this week, Mr Hollande did promise to cut his own pay by and that of government by 30 per cent if elected. He said he would rewrite Europe's fiscal pact to insert measures to spur growth.
Little known outside France, Mr Hollande has never held a ministerial post, but nevertheless cast himself as the natural successor to François Mitterrand, the last left-winger to win the presidency in 1988.

"Some people criticise me for never having been minister. When I see who they are today, I'm reassured!," he said.

Invoking the legacy of 1789 and 1968, he asked to be judged on how much he improved the lot of young voters by the end of his mandate.

The latest poll puts Hollande on 30 per cent compared to Sarkozy's 23 per cent and with Marine Le Pen in third with 18 per cent. But the gap has narrowed and Mr Sarkozy is betting on support for Mr Hollande collapsing in the final run-up to
the first round on April 22.

With this in mind, he intends to launch his official campaign as late as mid-March.

He apparently wrapped himself in more traditionally Gaullist symbolism (big rousing chorus of La Marseillaise and lots of Tricolors).  He will also pull troops out from Afghanistan immediately, negotiate a Franco-German pact, make the world of finance 'the servant not the master' of the people.  All because 'all countries have souls.  The soul of France is equality.'

Sw-oooon

Edit:  Oh and he also wants to put the 1905 Separation of Church and State Law into the constitution.  Pandering to the Marti vote and, probably trying to distract from the far-right.

[11B4V]

He looks French.

[Jacob]

He looks French.

That might work out in his favour.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah based on looks alone he seems Presidential:





Why do the French love bald Presidents so much?

[Syt]

Why do the French love bald Presidents so much?

[The Brain]

Tell that to the Marine.

[Duque de Bragança]

He apparently wrapped himself in more traditionally Gaullist symbolism (big rousing chorus of La Marseillaise and lots of Tricolors).  He will also pull troops out from Afghanistan immediately, negotiate a Franco-German pact, make the world of finance 'the servant not the master' of the people.  All because 'all countries have souls.  The soul of France is equality.'

Sw-oooon

Edit:  Oh and he also wants to put the 1905 Separation of Church and State Law into the constitution.  Pandering to the Marti vote and, probably trying to distract from the far-right.

He's always better than  Ségolène
As for laïcité, well why not enforce it in Elsass-Mosel ?
He could win by 80% if Marine goes to the run-off... Let's see how Flanby (Caramel pudding) manages the campaign.

[Admiral Yi]

This dude has downgrade written all over him.

[Grey Fox]

Nice discourse, I liked it.

Every moment I also thought would kill someone here.

[Valmy]

make the world of finance 'the servant not the master' of the people

The world of finance only becomes your master if you go into debt.  If the world of finance is your servant while you are in debt...well how does that work?

[Richard Hakluyt]

At least he doesn't wear platform heels. He does need to lose more hair though, for the proper French presidential look.

[Oexmelin]

Why do the French love bald Presidents so much?

This one is the present president. He just wears the face of Nicolas Sarkozy.

[Zoupa]

This dude has downgrade written all over him.

I'm glad the notation agencies use such precise barometers such as how a dude looks.

[The Minsky Moment]

This dude has downgrade written all over him.

Key part of the plan is to make the rating function an arm of the state - so downgrading the French sovereign will be a punishable act of treason.
So no worries - no risk of (further) downgrades.

[viper37]

Speaking in Le Bourget, Mr Hollande promised to cut his own pay by and that of government by 30 per cent if elected Photo: AP

Nice move.  But it won't happen.  As soon as he's elected, he'll talk like all other socialist politicians, about not devaluationg their important work, about how it is totally justified, the public pressure, the long hours, that it won't save that much money, etc, etc.

He will also pull troops out from Afghanistan immediately,

Great, another crazy French.

negotiate a Franco-German pact,

Bye bye EU!

make the world of finance 'the servant not the master' of the people.  All because 'all countries have souls.  The soul of France is equality.'

ohhhh, that's great.  He scored lots of points with the economically illeterate majority, the people who don't ask question when they're promised 200% rate of return on their investment but bitch when they realize it was a scam.