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Latest update: 22/10/2011
- France - François HOLLANDE - French elections - French politics
France’s Socialists anoint Hollande as candidate
Nearly 4,000 Socialist Party activist and supporters packed a convention centre in the heart of Paris Saturday to officially anoint Francois Hollande as the party’s candidate for next year’s presidential election.
By News Wires (text)
AFP - France's opposition Socialist Party officially anointed Francois Hollande Saturday as its candidate for next year's presidential elections, which opinion polls suggest he will win.
Hollande took the party's nomination over rival Martine Aubry on October 16 in the run-off of France's first ever US-style open primary which galvanised the French left, drawing some 2.8 million voters.
Nearly 4,000 party activists and sympathisers packed a Paris convention hall to hear the official results and hail Hollande, a 57-year-old lawmaker with no ministerial experience, and the five opponents he defeated.
He is all but certain to face right-wing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in next spring's presidential vote, and the latest opinion poll published Thursday showed he would win handily with 64 percent of the vote in the second round run-off.
Observers say Hollande is vulnerable to charges that he lacks the necessary experience to run France and critics have accused him of lacking the substance to take on Sarkozy.
Hollande's key task will be to rally France's Socialists after a primary campaign that, while largely civil, exposed long-standing divisions on the left.
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Comments (2)
Hollande has not enough
Hollande has not enough experience.
Sarkozy is Fascistic; he puts business before the people of France.
The French electorate will choose.
All the Best to Mr.Hollande!
I wish you all the best Mr.Hollande and Socialist party.The current economic recession has exposed faults in capitalistic system.For more humane and socially tolerant and progressive world, the change is inevitable and I wish socialist win the upcoming Presidential Election so that they could play a vital role for the betterment of France and of the whole world.
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