His decision to run for a return to Parliament had been a surprise – including within his own party. France's former Socialist president François Hollande, running under the colors of the Nouveau Front Populaire left-wing alliance in the 1st constituency of central Corrèze, obtained 37.63% of the votes on Sunday June 30, in the first round of the snap parliamentary elections. He beat the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) candidate, Maitey Pouget (30.89%), and the right-wing Les Républicains incumbent, Francis Dubois (28.64%), who had been backed by President Emmanuel Macron's camp.
Hollande was the district's representative at the Assemblée Nationale from 1988 to 1993 and then from 1997 to 2012, the year he was elected president. "An exceptional situation calls for an exceptional decision," Hollande said to justify his support for the Nouveau Front Populaire. He had been one of the greatest critics of the previous alliance between most of France's left-wing parties, the NUPES in 2022. But this time, he said, the common goal was to keep the far right out of power. In the European elections, the RN had topped his constituency, with almost 32% of the vote.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.