The man to defeat Sarkozy?

The apparent leader in the race to beat incumbent French president Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, a man not known for his charisma, is described as "the antidote to the gesticulative politics of the Sarkozy era but also the alternative to the flawed charm of a Dominique Strauss-Kahn or a Jacques Chirac." Well, thank God for that. John Lichfield writes:

François Hollande has no ministerial experience. He is little known outside France; or, rather, he is known mostly as the former common-law husband of Ségolène Royal, the failed Socialist presidential candidate in 2007. He is no Blairist centre-left visionary. He is a social democrat rather than an old-style socialist. He is a convinced European. He is a cautious, managerial kind of politician rather than an innovator. He promises to reduce France's debts but also promises higher spending on education and pensions. Is he the kind of man needed to address the overlapping crises in France and Europe (an economic crisis; a banking crisis; a European decision-making crisis; a French democratic crisis compounded by fresh allegations of decades of corrupt party financing)?

Read the rest of Lichfield's article.