François Hollande’s decision not to run creates whole new scenario in next spring’s French Presidential election.

This past week President Hollande of France announced he would not seek a second term in next April’s presidential election. This decision taken by Hollande was a realistic decision given his very poor polling results, his failure to solve the unemployment problem because of his refusal to embrace Keynesianism, the low level of popularity of the governing socialist party and the clear and present danger that if the socialists fielded a weak candidate they probably would be excluded from the decisive second round which would instead boil down to a contest between the Front National candidate Marine Le Pen and the Republican party conservative candidate François Fillon. Now there are some plausible alternatives to this scenario. The choice on the left so far is among conservative politicians Emannuel Macron and Emanuel Valls,and further left figures Arnaud Montebourg and the former education minister Benoît Hamon. A poll shows Valls ahead. On the further left is once again Jean Luc Melenchon. So the socialist party primary will be an interesting and possibly revitalizing affair. It takes place in January.

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About haroldchorneyeconomist

I am Professor of political economy at Concordia university in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I received my B.A.Hons (econ.&poli sci) from the University of Manitoba. I also completed my M.A. degree in economics there. Went on to spend two years at the London School of Economics as a Ph.D. student in economics and then completed my Ph.D. in political economy at the University of Toronto. Was named a John W.Dafoe fellow, a CMHC fellow and a Canada Council fellow. I also was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1968 after completing my first class honours undergraduate degree. Worked as an economist in the area of education, labour economics and as the senior economist with the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation for the Government of Manitoba from 1972 to 1978. I also have worked as an economic consultant for MDT socio-economic consultants and have been consulted on urban planning, health policy, linguistic duality and public sector finance questions by the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan,the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Ontario and the Federal government of Canada. I have also been consulted by senior leaders of the British Labour party, MPs from the Progressive Conservative party, the Liberal party and the New Democrats on economic policy questions. Members of the Government of France under the Presidency of Francois Mitterand discussed my work on public sector deficits. I have also run for elected office at the municipal level. I first began to write about quantitative easing as a useful policy option during the early 1980s.
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