François Hollande

Although Hollande has never married, for thirty years he had a live-in relatiosnship with Ségolène Royal. They had four children; Thomas, Clémence, Julien and Flora. The couple separated in 2007.

Few months after the separation with Royal Hollande began to see French journalist Valérie Trierweiler. After Hollande became the President, she moved in with him. She later accompanied him in his foreign trips and acted as the official hostess. The couple announced their official separation on January 25, 2014.

François Hollande was born on August 12, 1954, in Rouen, France. His father, Georges Gustave Hollande, was an ENT doctor and held a far right political view. His mother, Nicole Frédérique Marguerite Tribert, was a social worker. As a child, François was brought up a Catholic.

François started his education at Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-la-Salle in Rouen. When he turned thirteen the family moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine in the suburbs of Paris. There he enrolled at Lycée Pasteur, a secondary school in the locality.

After graduating from secondary school, François attended the École des Hautes Études Commerciales and passed out from there in 1975. Next, he enrolled at the Institut de Sciences Politiques and finally at the École Nationale d'Administration, from where he passed out in 1980. He also has a bachelor degree in law from Panthéon-Assas University.

Hollande joined the Socialist Party in 1979, while he was still a student at École Nationale d'Administration and was spotted by Jacques Attali, the advisor to President Mitterrand. After passing out he entered Cour des comptes, a quasi judicial body under the French government, as a councilor.

In 1981, Hollande challenged future President Chirac for the French Assembly seat of Corrèze department in central France, but lost. He was then appointed as an economic adviser in the administration of President Francois Mitterrand. Later he was sent to work under the government spokesperson Max Gallo.

In 1983, Hollande became a municipal councilor for Ussel, a commune in the Corrèze department. In 1988, he again contested for the National Assembly seat from Corrèze and won. He lost the seat in the 1993 election due to right wing wave that engulfed the country during the period.

At that time, the Socialist Party was also undergoing a phase of internal struggle with different leaders trying to assert their authorities. Hollande tried to reconcile the different warring groups. Ultimately Lionel Jospin assumed the leadership of the party. Under him Hollande became the official party spokesperson.

Then in 1997, Jospin became the Prime Minister of a cohabitation government under President Chirac. This is also the year when Hollande regained his National Assembly seat from Corrèze.

In this election, Hollande was faced with five other contestants including IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his former partner Ségolène Royal. While Strauss-Kahn was all time favorite, he had to leave the election after an alleged assault charge in New York. With it Hollande’s position as the frontrunner was established.

Hollande won the party nomination on October 16, 2011 receiving 56% of the vote. He also gained the support of the other candidates and began to get ready for the 2012 Presidential election.

Hollande launched his campaign at a rally at Le Bourget on January 22, 2012. It was attended by 25,000 people. On January 26, 2012, he released his manifesto outlining his policies. It contained sixty propositions.

Most of the propositions were aimed at improving the financial condition of the nation while some like granting marriage and adoption rights to LGT couples were of social relevance. In his manifesto he stressed on increasing the tax on the wealthy and the corporate, reducing the retirement age, creating 60,000 teaching jobs, promoting more industries etc.

The manifesto was strongly criticized by the incumbent president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was running for his second and final term. After an initial close run, Hollande won the election comfortably. He was elected the President of French Republic on May 6, 2012 with 51.7% of the vote. With it, he also became the Co Prince of Andorra.