Surprise move not to stand for a second term in upcoming presidential election throws selection of a Socialist candidate wide open

François Hollande, the least popular French president since the second world war, has announced he will not run for a second term in office.

With a satisfaction rating so low it recently dropped to just 4%, the Socialist president appeared shaken and emotional as he said in a live televised address from the Élysée palace that he would not attempt to run for a second term, conscious of the “risks” to the French left if he did so.

“Today I am aware of the risks that going down a route that would not gather sufficient support would entail, so I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election,” a sombre-looking Hollande said.

He said his only concern was “the superior interest of this country” and that he could not stand for “the break-up of the left”. He said his time in power had taught him “humility”.

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He is the first French president since the war not to attempt to run for re-election.

François Fillon, the right’s presidential candidate and the favourite to win next spring, said Hollande had “admitted with lucidity that his obvious failure stopped him going any further”. Fillon, who last week called Hollande’s presidency “pathetic”, said Hollande’s presidency was ending in a “political shambles”.

Hollande’s decision leaves the way open for a bitter Socialist primary race in January to decide who will run in his place. Manuel Valls, the ambitious prime minister who is a tough law-and-order voice and pro-business reformist on the right of the party, could now decide to run to become the Socialist candidate.

If he does run, Valls will face opposition from several former government ministers who are part of a leftwing rebel movement, including the ambitious former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, who is fiercely critical of Hollande’s pro-business line.

Hollande’s popularity slumped right from the start of his presidency in 2012. He beat the rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy after a classic leftwing campaign in which he targeted big business and pledged to raise taxes for high earners.

He began his presidency with a leftist programme that included a wealth super-tax of 75% on top earners but he shifted course midway through his term.

François Hollande labour reforms protests Read more

Grassroots supporters were further alienated by a pro-business switch in 2014, a wavering over security reforms, and labour laws that brought thousands out onto the streets in protests early this year.

Hollande was accused of a lack of preparation, zigzagging on policy and being unable to keep a lid on his government’s internal feuding on how to address the economy. His initial attempt to style himself as a “normal president” – paying no heed to the superficial trappings of office – backfired and endeared him even less to the electorate.

Accused of lacking authority and coherence, dithering over policy decisions from tax increases to pro-business reform, failing to kickstart the sluggish economy and failing to protect France from a series of devastating terrorist attacks, he was eventually abandoned by his own core of Socialist party voters who felt betrayed by his muddled, stop-start pro-business reforms.

One recent poll by Odoxa put him at only 7.5% in the first round of the presidential race, behind the right’s Fillon, the far-right Marine Le Pen, his former economy minister and maverick independent candidate Emmanuel Macron, and the hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

In his televised address, Hollande said he felt he had achieved many changes for France in his time in office, including introducing same-sex marriage and beginning to lower France’s stubbornly high jobless figures after decades of mass unemployment.

But he admitted that the drop in the number of unemployed had come too late and “unemployment is still too high”.

Hollande said he was pleased he had led France to intervene against Islamists in Mali, in west Africa. He said his biggest regret came after the Paris terrorist attacks of November 2015 when he planned to strip French citizenship from dual-nationality citizens convicted of terrorism. The plan caused havoc and division on the left and right, and Hollande was forced to abandon it.

Hollande’s complicated personal life in office only served to reinforce his image as indecisive and distracted. In January 2014 he was photographed by paparazzi going by scooter to a flat near the Élysée where he was conducting an affair with actor Julie Gayet.

His partner, the political journalist Valérie Trierweiler, then wrote a tell-all book about their tumultuous relationship, in which she described their relationship breakdown in excruciating detail and, most seriously, accused Hollande of mocking poor people as “toothless”. The fallout was disastrous for his image.

A recent 600-page book, A President Shouldn’t Say That, in which Hollande shocked even those in his close circle by regularly confiding in two journalists with the private details of his presidency and personal life – including openly discussing state secrets such as details of plans for an airstrike on Syria in 2013, or paying ransom for abducted French journalists – served to damage him further.

More than any other French president, Hollande attempted to play the transparency card, confiding in journalists and inviting documentary crews into the Elysée, yet there was a communication gap in which he was never able to build a relationship with the French people in which they understood his goals and felt he understood them.

Hollande’s family, including his ex-partner and mother of his children, Ségolène Royal, a government minister, is said to have advised him not to stand again and risk being humiliated.

The French presidential election takes place next April and May.</s>French president Francois Hollande said on Thursday he would not seek a second term in next year’s presidential election, a surprise move that clears the way for an alternative left-wing candidate.

It is the first time since France’s fifth Republic was created in 1958 that an incumbent French president has not sought re-election. Hollande is the most unpopular president in French polling history, a fact he tacitly acknowledged in a speech from the Elysee Palace.

“I am aware today of the risk that going down a route that would not gather sufficient support would entail, so I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election,” a sombre-looking Hollande said in his televised address.

All recent polls have predicted that neither Hollande nor any other Socialist candidate would make it past the first round of the election next spring. They predict a run-off battle between centre-right candidate Francois Fillon and the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen.

After Britain’s Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump as US president, the contest will be another key test of strength between mainstream politicians and a charismatic populist.

“I have for over four and a half years served the country with sincerity and honesty,” a black-suited, stony-faced Hollande said as he detailed the reforms he has achieved since his election in May 2012.

There has been tension between Hollande and his prime minister Manuel Valls, who raised the possibility in a weekend interview that he could be a candidate in the election. His staff said he would not comment on Hollande’s announcement.

Hollande said he would now focus on leading the country in the months until the two-round presidential election on April 23rd and May 7th.

The Left is deeply divided as it approaches the election. Several other Socialists, including former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, have said they will take part in the party’s primaries in January.

Another of Hollande’s ex-ministers, Emmanuel Macron, and leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon have said they will run in the presidential election but without taking part in the primaries.

Francois Fillon, who on Sunday became the centre-right candidate for the presidential election, immediately reacted to say that Hollande had been “lucid” about what he called “his clear failure”.

“Those five years (of the Hollande mandate) end in political shambles and decay,” Fillon said in a statement.

Hollande beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in an election in May 2012 after a classic leftwing campaign in which he targeted big business and pledged to raise taxes for high earners.

But his popularity soon began to decline with a perceived lack of leadership and flip-flops on key issues, particularly tax reform, which dismayed many on the left. His popularity has been undermined by stubbornly high unemployment and anaemic economic growth.

Grassroots supporters were further alienated by a pro-business switch in 2014, a wavering over security reforms, and by labour laws that brought thousands out onto the streets in protests early this year.

Hollande’s image was also hit by a series of communication mis-steps, including a very public split with his ex-partner Valerie Trierweiler and pictures of him going to visit his new partner on a scooter.

The last straw for some of his closest supporters was the publication of a book by two Le Monde journalists in October. In interviews with them, Hollande criticised several of his allies and others from judges to footballers, in comments that were widely criticised as indiscreet and ill-befitting a president. He also disclosed that French secret services had carried out four targeted killings on his orders.</s>PARIS: French President Francois Hollande dramatically announced Thursday he would not seek re-election next April at the end of his five-year term as he bowed to historic low approval ratings.

The withdrawal means the 62-year-old Socialist will be the first president of France’s fifth republic, founded in 1958, to quit after just one term.

“I have decided that I will not be a candidate,” Hollande said in a solemn televised address from the Elysee Palace in Paris.

He conceded he had failed to rally his deeply divided Socialist party behind his candidacy and keep a promise to slash unemployment, which hovers at around one in 10 of the workforce.

“In the months to come, my only duty will be to continue to lead my country,” he said.

The Socialist leader has some of the lowest approval ratings for a French president since World War II.

His term has been marked by U-turns on major policies, terror attacks, a sickly economy and embarrassing revelations about his private life.

A new poll on Wednesday predicted he would win just seven percent of votes in the first round of next year’s election — strengthening Socialist party critics who view him as a lame duck.

Voter surveys currently tip rightwing Republicans party candidate Francois Fillon to win the election, with the far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen seen as the closest challenger.

But the full range of candidates remains unknown and the role of independents such as 38-year-old ex-economy minister Emmanuel Macron are difficult to predict.

Hollande’s decision flings open the door to others vying to be the Socialists’ champion.

The party began accepting candidates on Thursday for its primaries, due on January 22 and 29. The presidential elections are due on April 23, with a runoff on May 7.

Arnaud Montebourg, a leftist former economy minister, has already submitted his name while ambitious Prime Minister Manuel Valls would also be expected to stand.

Valls, unfailingly loyal until recently, upped pressure on Hollande at the weekend to step aside when he hinted he might run against his boss in the primaries.

He also spoke out against Hollande in October after the publication of a devastating book called “A President Shouldn’t Say That” featuring interviews with the president.

The best-seller was the last straw for many loyalists, for Hollande was seen as sniping at judges, the national football team and even his own government’s policies.

“It’s the choice of a true statesman,” Valls said in a statement after Hollande’s announcement.

Hollande took office in 2012 promising to be “Mr Normal” after the flamboyant and mercurial Nicolas Sarkozy, who married supermodel Carla Bruni while in office.

But his tenure has been anything but normal.

France has faced three major Islamist-inspired terror attacks — firstly against Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015, then in Paris the following November and in Nice in July.

On economics, Hollande started with a leftist programme that included a wealth super-tax of 75 percent on top-earners but he shifted course mid-way through his term to embrace pro-business reforms.

And his colorful personal life has never been far from the headlines, leading his opponents to claim he has demeaned one of the most powerful political offices in Europe.

In January 2014, celebrity magazine Closer published pictures of him arriving on a scooter at an apartment near his official residence for secret trysts with a French actress, Julie Gayet.

The revelations led to the break-up of Hollande’s relationship with partner Valerie Trierweiler who went on to write an eviscerating book which claimed the president mocked poor people as “the toothless”.

Hollande listed his achievements on Thursday night, saying he had worked to “get France back on track and make it more fair” through reforms to the economy, social security and education.

He pointed to a global accord on climate change signed in Paris last year as part of his legacy, as well as his handling of the terror attacks when he had sought to heal and comfort a wounded country.

He also brought in gay marriage in 2013.

On unemployment — which Hollande had promised to roll back before the election — he admitted that “the results are coming, later than I had promised them, but they are there.”

Hollande’s decision came on a day when the left-leaning Le Monde newspaper delivered a withering assessment of his time in office.

Le Monde wrote in an editorial that he had “not given a meaning to his time in office, occupied the job with authority or imposed himself as the legitimate candidate for his party.” AFP</s>PARIS – The Latest on France's presidential campaigns (all times local):

French President Francois Hollande says he decided against running for another term because he wants to give his Socialist party a chance to win "against conservatism and extremism."

Hollande said on French television Thursday that he was "lucid" about his chances of getting wide backing within the party, which remains deeply divided over his policies.

The historically unpopular president said the unexpected announcement: "Today, I am conscious of the risks that such a move would have if it doesn't get widespread support."

The 62-year-old Hollande also used his somber address to recap what he viewed as his achievements since taking office in 2012.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls is widely expected to jump into the Socialist primary field.

France's Socialist President Francois Hollande says he will not seek re-election next year.

Hollande's announcement Thursday on French television network TF1 came just a few days after his No. 2, Manuel Valls, said he is "ready" to compete in the left-wing Socialist primary in January.

Hollande said: "I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election" and that he remained "lucid" about his chances of getting wide backing within the party.

The deeply unpopular Hollande was expected to say in the coming weeks whether he would run again.

The French president — the most unpopular of France's modern history — repeatedly said he would seek re-election only if he was able to curb the unemployment rate, which has hovered for years at 10 percent.

Former French economy minister Arnaud Montebourg has formally entered the country's presidential race.

Montebourg announced his candidacy Thursday in the presidential primary France's Socialist party has scheduled for January.

The 54-year-old Montebourg's politics are firmly left-leaning. He lost his cabinet position in 2014 because he denounced president Francois Hollande's pro-business shift.

During a speech in Paris, Montebourg says he favors a strong state to protect France's industry from "foreign interests."

Another former economy minister of Hollande's, centrist Emmanuel Macron also is seeing the presidency but without taking part into a primary. Macron advocates free market policies.

Hollande must say whether he will stand for re-election before a Dec. 15 deadline.

The French conservatives have chosen former prime minister Francois Fillon as their nominee for the April-May presidential election..</s>French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday he would not seek a second term in office in the presidential election in 2017, an unprecedented move that leaves the way open for other left-wing candidates.

It is the first time in decades that an incumbent French president has not sought re-election. Hollande is the most unpopular president on record.

“I am aware today of the risk that going down a route that would not gather sufficient support would entail, so I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election,” a somber-looking Hollande said in a televised address.

All recent polls have predicted that neither Hollande nor any other Socialist candidate would make it past the first round of the election. They predict a run-off battle between center-right candidate Francois Fillon and the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen.

The Left is deeply divided as it approaches the election. Several other Socialists, including former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, have said they will take part in the party’s primaries in January.

Another of Hollande’s ex-ministers, Emmanuel Macron, and leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon have said they will run in the presidential election but without taking part in the primaries.

There has been tension between Hollande and his prime minister Manuel Valls, who raised the possibility in a weekend interview that he might run in the primaries against his boss.

Hollande beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in an election in May 2012 after a classic leftwing campaign in which he targeted big business and pledged to raise taxes for high earners.

But his popularity soon began to decline with a perceived lack of leadership and flip-flops on key issues, particularly tax reform, which dismayed many on the left. His popularity has been undermined by stubbornly high unemployment and anemic economic growth.

Grassroots supporters were further alienated by a pro-business switch in 2014, a wavering over security reforms, and by labor laws that brought thousands out onto the streets in protests early this year.

Hollande’s image was also hit by a series of communication mis-steps, including a very public split with his ex-partner Valerie Trierweiler and pictures of him going to visit his new partner on a scooter.

The last straw for some of his closest supporters was the publication of a book by two Le Monde journalists in October. In interviews with them, Hollande criticized several of his allies and others from judges to footballers, in comments that were widely criticized as indiscreet and ill-befitting a president. He also disclosed that French secret services had carried out four targeted killings on his orders.</s>French voters will go to the polls in April and May 2017, but Hollande, who has low popularity ratings, says he will not stand for re-election.

It is the first time since 1958, when France's fifth republic was created, that an incumbent president has not sought re-election.

"I am speaking to you this evening to inform you of the decision I have taken in view of the forthcoming presidential election," he said. "I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election."

Hollande, 62, defeated Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 to become the first Socialist president to win a French election since François Mitterrand's re-election in 1988. He cited achievements under his watch, including opening up marriage to all couples, strengthening women's equality and fighting against discrimination. He said unemployment had declined since the beginning of the year, but conceded "it remains at too high a level." France has been hit by several major terrorist attacks while he was President. attackers armed with automatic weapons and bombs struck six places in Paris, leaving at least 130 people dead and hundreds wounded. In January 2015, a total of 17 people died in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery store, and the Paris suburb of Montrouge. In July, attackers armed with automatic weapons and bombs struck six places in Paris, leaving at least 130 people dead and hundreds wounded. In January 2015, a total of 17 people died in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery store, and the Paris suburb of Montrouge. In July, In November 2015, attackers armed with automatic weapons and bombs struck six places in Paris, leaving at least 130 people dead and hundreds wounded. In January 2015, a total of 17 people died in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery store, and the Paris suburb of Montrouge. In July, a man plowed through a holiday crowd in Nice with a truck, killing at least 84. "The world, Europe and France went through particularly severe tests during my term in office," Hollande said. "In these terrible circumstances, I wanted national cohesion to be maintained, so that we could avoid division and stigmatization ... I took the necessary measures." Hollande, who served as an aide to Mitterand at the beginning of his career in the 1970s, joined the Socialist Party in 1979 and two years later stood for election against future President Jacques Chirac. Hollande lost. Born in Normandy, northwestern France, the son of a doctor and a social worker, Hollande studied politics at one of France's most prestigious universities. Hollande had a 28-year relationship with fellow politician Segolene Royal; they have four children together, but never married, and split in 2007. French conservatives have picked Francois Fillon as their presidential candidate in next year's election. Fillon, the Republican Party's presidential candidate, hit out at the man he hopes to replace at the Elysee Palace, posting on Twitter: "This evening, the President of the Republic admitted clearly that his clear failure prohibits him from going any further." "This five year term ends in political chaos and the collapse of power. More than ever, the recovery of France must be built on solid foundations."</s>PARIS (AP) — Francois Hollande has always been an unlikely French president, a guy proud to call himself “normal” and who ended up in the Elysee Palace almost by default.

Perhaps the most presidential thing he has done was decide to step down after one term and not run in France’s presidential election next spring.

Hollande steered a terrorized France through its deadliest extremist attacks and left a lasting global legacy with the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. As commander-in-chief, he flexed France’s military muscle from the Mideast to Mali.

Yet he was the least loved French president of modern times, because French voters felt he failed them where it mattered most — their paychecks, taxes and job prospects. He seemed to let go of the wheel when it came to the economy, veering left, then right, and letting divisions in his Socialist party eclipse his economic reforms.

He promised a 75 percent tax on the super-rich, painfully tried to implement it, then abandoned the idea.

He vowed to curb unemployment, yet French joblessness stubbornly stayed around 10 percent.

He pledged to fight austerity, then slashed government spending.

He raised taxes, then cut them.

Hollande championed labor reforms meant to give employers more freedom, but infuriated many who feared the moves undermined workers’ rights, unleashing months of violent protests.

“I served the country with sincerity, with honesty,” Hollande told the nation Thursday night. Expressing concerns about rising populism and acknowledging the risks to the French left of a weak presidential bid, he said: “I have decided not to be a candidate.”

It was a stunning announcement for its emotion and lucidity — but also since it reflected courage for a lifelong politician to admit his failings and walk away.

Hollande, a 62-year-old bachelor with four kids, has been a bit of a paradox all along, someone who wanted to remain ordinary while running a country of 65 million people with nuclear weapons.

From the day he took office in 2012, his hair and glasses drenched in his rainy inaugural parade because he refused a presidential umbrella, it was hard to believe the jovial, approachable Hollande was really in charge.

He even tried to keep his sexual dalliances down-to-earth: When he started an affair with actress Julie Gayet, he rode a motorbike to her flat in a simple white bike helmet — presidential security be damned.

Parisian Marion Laulier blamed the Socialist party for failing to rally around Hollande’s reforms, and for being afraid “to see that France and the world are on the move, and they need to be more realistic and responsible.” She praised Hollande and his courage, but said he “was unable to explain to us all of his decisions, his choices, that’s his mistake.”

At times Hollande proved to be decisive — sending troops to quash extremists in Mali and Central African Republic, and legalizing gay marriage despite resistance. But often, his positions were muddy.

“Some say black, some white and he says gray … but in France, people want a president of authority,” said Fabrice Lhomme, who co-authored an unusually close-up recent book on Hollande titled “A President Shouldn’t Say That…”

Hollande’s path to the presidency was long overshadowed by more charismatic figures.

First Segolene Royal, the mother of his children, ran for the Socialists in the 2007 presidential race because she seemed more electable than party leader Hollande.

Then Dominique Strauss-Kahn was long considered the front-runner for the 2012 presidential race, until a New York sex scandal torpedoed his career — leaving Hollande as the Socialists’ next-best hope.

Hollande won the 2012 election, but some voters chose him simply because he wasn’t Nicolas Sarkozy, the outgoing conservative president whose flashy style and angry rhetoric alienated many.

In deciding to step aside after a troubled four and a half years, Hollande earned praise from voters and rivals alike for his integrity.

“I think this was perhaps the best thing to do to … try to bring the left together,” Paris commuter Vincent Forbin said Friday.

Far right leader Marine Le Pen, hoping to ride Europe’s populist wave to the French presidency, said it was “an act of lucidity on the part of Mr. Hollande, considering the results of his presidential term and the disenchantment and the total absence of confidence from the French people.”

Prime Minister Manuel Valls, a potential Socialist presidential contender, praised Hollande’s “tough, mature, serious choice” and insisted it was too early to rule on his boss’ legacy.

“History will, of course, put back into perspective the action carried on over the past five years. We must defend his record,” Valls said.

Sylvie Corbet and Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed to this report.</s>French President Francois Hollande announced Thursday that he would not seek a second term in next year’s presidential election, saying he hoped to give his Socialist party a chance to win “against conservatism and extremism” by stepping aside.

“I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election,” Hollande said in a somber address on French television that recapped his achievements since taking office in 2012.

The 62-year-old president - the country’s least popular leader since World War II - said he was “conscious of the risks” entailed in him running, alluding to his historic lack of support since coming to power.

The Socialist party has been deeply divided over Hollande’s policies, with rebels within the party openly criticizing his pro-business strategy and calling for more left-leaning policies. Two of his former cabinet ministers, Arnaud Montebourg and Benoit Hamon, already have announced they would run in next month’s Socialist primary, alongside other low-profile candidates.

Hollande repeatedly had said he would seek re-election only if he were able to curb the unemployment rate in France, which for years has hovered around 10 percent. The latest figures showed a slight decrease in the jobless numbers, but didn’t seem to quell the criticism.

Hollande was expected to say in the coming weeks whether he would seek to run again but Thursday’s announcement came just a few days after his No. 2, Prime Minister Manuel Valls, said he was “ready” to compete in the Socialist primary.

Valls, who polled slightly higher than his boss, is widely expected to jump into the primary field.

Whoever is chosen by the Socialists will face former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who won France’s first-ever conservative presidential primary on Sunday after promising drastic free-market reforms, along with a crackdown on immigration and Islamic extremism.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front party, is expected to be a major competitor in the two-round presidential election in April and May.</s>French voters will go to the polls in April and May 2017, but Hollande, who has been beset by low popularity ratings, says he will not stand for re-election.

"I am speaking to you this evening to inform you of the decision I have taken in view of the forthcoming presidential election," he said. "I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election."

Hollande, 62, defeated Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 to become the first Socialist president to win a French election since François Mitterrand's re-election in 1988.

He cited achievements under his watch, including opening up marriage to all couples, strengthening women's equality and fighting against discrimination. He said unemployment had declined since the beginning of the year, but conceded "it remains at too high a level." France has been hit by several major terrorist attacks, in Paris and Nice, during his presidency, events that he touched on during his address. "The world, Europe and France went through particularly severe tests during my term in office. "In these terrible circumstances, I wanted national cohesion to be maintained, so that we could avoid division and stigmatization ... I took the necessary measures."</s>The abdication of a French president is no small deal. Charles de Gaulle, the hero of the French resistance, reformed the Constitution in 1958 to turn a formerly weak office into a supreme one, investing the presidency with the power and symbolism once associated with kings and popes.

Then he took the job himself, restoring unity and pride to a France demoralized and divided by colonial wars and unstable governments. Ever since, a country with a long and bloody history of popular and religious revolt has looked to its president to hold a fractious republic together.

None has failed as miserably at this task as François Hollande. The accidental leader French voters elected in 2012 out of fatigue with Nicolas Sarkozy’s histrionics and nouveau riche tastes, Mr. Hollande promised to be a “normal” president. Fate and personality made him anything but.

Mr. Hollande’s personal life has been messy. His ex-wife Ségolène Royal, who ran unsuccessfully against Mr. Sarkozy in 2007, engaged in a public feud with Mr. Hollande’s long-time girlfriend Valérie Trierweiler – until he betrayed the latter with a young actress. Ms. Trierweiler wrote a tell-all book that depicted her ex as a snob who made condescending comments about the poor. The revelation in October that Mr. Hollande dined regularly with two Le Monde journalists and spoke disparagingly about almost everyone turned even his dwindling allies against him.

Mr. Hollande was hardly the first French president to have had a mistress. But his hapless management of his personal affairs became a metaphor for his presidential leadership.

Mr. Hollande, a Socialist who took office amid a continental debt crisis, was forced by the markets and European Union to pursue austerity policies that sent unemployment higher. His base considered it an unpardonable betrayal. A prominent leftist cabinet minister resigned in protest and began a campaign to oust Mr. Hollande in the 2017 presidential race.

He was not the only one. Sensing a sinking ship, Emmanuel Macron, a brilliant former investment banker and the architect of Mr. Hollande’s economic and labour market reforms, also quit the cabinet last summer after launching his own centrist political movement to test the presidential waters.

On the cruellest test of his leadership, healing the country in the wake of repeated terrorist attacks that would have rocked any presidency, Mr. Hollande has lacked the necessary resolve. Unable to unite his own party over how to tackle radical Islam – he pushed for, then retracted, a proposal to strip convicted terrorists of their French citizenship – he focused on fighting IS abroad. But French voters remain far more preoccupied with the Islamic threat from within.

To his credit, Mr. Hollande was an early and indefatigable proponent of Western intervention in Iraq and Syria to combat Islamic State. He also sent troops to Mali to prevent IS from taking over the former French colony and remained a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lawless expansionism into Ukraine and military action to bolster Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Not that it mattered domestically. By the time a poll this week showed him capturing a humiliating 7.5 per cent of the vote in the first round of next spring’s presidential election, it was clear Mr. Hollande faced a humbling choice – announce now he would not run for a second term or endure a bitter Socialist primary he would probably lose.

“As a socialist, because that is my life’s undertaking, I cannot accept, I cannot resign myself, to the very dispersal of the left, its shattering, because that would deprive it of any hope of winning in the face of conservatism, or worse still, extremism,” a subdued President told his people in a televised address on Thursday night.

His incredible and inevitable abdication does provide some hope for those on the centre-left that either Mr. Macron or Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls can now mount a credible challenge to Republicans’ François Fillon and Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front.

Should neither Mr. Macron nor Mr. Valls succeed in bumping Mr. Fillon or Ms. Le Pen off the second and final presidential ballot, the French will choose next May between a strict social conservative and an anti-immigration crusader, each of whom would align foreign policy to suit Mr. Putin and reconsider, to the point of ending, France’s membership in the European Union.

Such is the crossroads at which Mr. Hollande’s failed presidency has left de Gaulle’s republic.
François Hollande, the President of France, announces that he will not run in next year's presidential election. This leaves the selection of a candidate for the French Socialist Party wide open.