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Spotlight: France's Hollande says "not afraid to lose" 2017 election

Xinhua, October 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

With the next presidential elections slowly but surely approaching, French President Francois Hollande defended his economic and political credentials, saying he was "ready" to face the public's rising discontent and said he was "not afraid" to lose the race to the Elysee Palace.

"Is there anyone who can do better? I'm not afraid to lose. I will not get frustrated and I do not blame the French," Hollande told L'Obs magazine.

"As the presidential election is getting closer, French voters will be able to compare if I did what I had promised," he added.

A recent Elabe poll for the news channel BFMTV showed 88 percent of voters disapprove of their Socialist leader with 72 percent of supporters of Left parties saying they were against Hollande's candidacy in the 2017 election.

Hollande asked French people to judge him on his long-term bid to address the country's economic and financial problems.

Taking office in 2012, the Socialist president inherited limp growth, a gaping trade deficit, 10 percent unemployment and strained public finances.

Five years after, financial troubles were fixed, purchasing power had improved, industrial output gained momentum and economy recovered and started to create jobs, according to Hollande.

"It is legitimate that I should be judged on this result," he stressed.

Another poll released in September showed that Hollande would lose his bid for re-election in the first round of voting, adding he would garner between 11 and 15 percent of the vote.

Haunted by poor public support and dogged by long-running unemployment, Hollande said he would decide whether to seek a second term or not in December.

"I'll tirelessly continue to defend the policies I have chosen. I fully assume responsibility. I will not apologize or get rid of it," he noted.

French voters handed a considerable win to the far-right party the National Front (FN) in local and European elections last year. FN head Marine Le Pen is almost certain to enter the second round of the presidential election, according to an Elabe survey released last month.

Asked whether he will back his Conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy in a hypothetical face-off with Le Pen in a presidential runoff, Hollande said: "If there would be a necessity to vote Sarkozy, we would do so."

The two rounds of French presidential elections are set for April 23 and May 7, 2017. Endit