“I’m getting ready,” Hollande told the weekly magazine Marianne, which splashed the quote across its front page last month.
“What’s at stake in the [2027] presidential election is major, historic. For France, but not just for France,” Hollande said last month in a clip posted to social media. “How the French vote will decide the future of Europe, and maybe even global stability.”
He faces a steep climb. Two polls have explored the possibility of a 2027 comeback — and in both, the former president was projected to receive less than 10 percent of the vote, far below the current front-runners and thereby failing to qualify for one of the two spots in the runoff.
But Hollande does have a narrow path forward: becoming king of the ashes of what’s left of his Socialist Party. The Socialists are so riven by infighting that they can neither agree on a candidate to put forward nor how to choose one. And competition is also rife on the center-right, where several candidates have already joined the race.
Hollande’s hope is that with the Socialists divided and the field already so crowded with candidates across the political spectrum, he’ll appear to be the most reasonable option for moderate voters.
“If the right is divided, there will be an opening for a social-democratic candidate to make the runoff,” said André Vallini, a former state secretary under Hollande who has remained close with the former French leader.