Speech at January 22, 2012 by the socialist candidate François Hollande,

My dear friends, you who are here, you who are watching me from a distance, even from further away, I came to talk about France, and therefore of the Republic. I came to talk about France that suffers, but also France, which hopes. I came to talk about France today - a page is to fade - and France tomorrow - we're writing it. I came to talk about France we are building on May 6 I do here in Seine-Saint-Denis, this department with multiple colors, the youngest of France, which accumulates so many difficulties, and at the same time contains so many assets.

Each, everyone here further, in France, in overseas has its history, its roots, its course, its preferences, its singularity. But we belong to the same nation, its values, its principles, its culture, its language, its institutions and therefore we aspire to the same future. The challenge of this campaign begins, do not go for it in a partisan confrontation. The challenge of this campaign goes well beyond us, the Left. The challenge of this campaign, to three months of the first round, it is France. It was France, always.



Gathered in front of you, great crowd, thousands, I feel a deep emotion that express your conviction, your will, your hope. I measure the pride of having been nominated by citizens as primary candidate for the presidential election. I am aware of the task that is mine: be the change, save the Left and restore confidence to France.

We are here, dear friends, to change the destiny of our country. I am ready to take on this responsibility and therefore to tell you what my conception of the presidency of the Republic, and this justifies that I appear today. What is the greater mission of chairing the French Republic?



Chairing the Republic is to devote themselves to the public interest, which must make a decision. Is to experience France by his reason and in his heart. It is prolonging the history of our country from afar, before the Republic, with the Republic, and that has often lit so often in world history. It is to be at that height. It is to show himself worthy, everywhere, in all places and in all acts required by the presidential office.

Chairing the Republic is to preserve the state, its neutrality, integrity, against the power of money, deal with customers face to communalism. Chairing the Republic is to be deeply attached to secularism as a value that releases and protects. And that is why I will write the 1905 law, that between the churches of the state, in the Constitution.

Chairing the Republic is to deny that any proceeds of a single man, a single argument, a single party, which also risks becoming a clan. Chairing the Republic is expand the rights of Parliament. It is to recognize local communities in their freedom. This commitment is a new act of decentralization. It is promoting the social partners. It is to recognize their role in the constitution. It is to involve citizens in the great debates that affect them, and the first will be the future of energy in France.

Chairing the Republic is choosing women, men who govern France in accordance with their skills, and those of the first Prime Minister. Chairing the Republic is willing to share the power of appointment to the highest offices. This is also not to appoint the president or presidents channels or radio public service broadcasting and leave this task to an independent authority.

Chairing the Republic is more democratic institutions. And I will introduce the non-accumulation of Parliamentarians for a proportional share of the National Assembly, parity in the exercise of responsibilities and the right of foreigners to vote in local elections, without fearing for our citizenship, for the cohesion of the country, putting aside fears, frilosités and conservatism.

Chairing the Republic is to enforce the laws for everyone, everywhere, without favor for relatives, without weakness for powerful, guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary, discarding any intervention in the affairs of power, preserving the press freedom, protecting its sources of information, by not using the information or the police for personal or political purposes. Chairing the Republic is to be ruthless against corruption. And woe to elect who will die there! Chairing the Republic is gathering is reconciled, it is united without ever losing any of the direction to follow. This is aside the stigma, division, suspicion, opposition between French, who would be there forever, who would be there for less time.

Chairing the Republic is raising and lowering never. Chairing the Republic is to be firm, firm including with regard to illegal immigration and those who exploit it. But it is worthy treat legal aliens and those which are intended to be based on objective criteria. It's welcome foreign students who want to learn in our country to enrich them and radiate France. And no circular should help move the students, scholars, artists who come here to give the best of themselves.

Chairing the Republic is carry the values ​​of France throughout the world. It is considering other peoples to believe us in return. This is to refrain from the lesson, including their place in history. It is never compromise with the foundations of the French genius, which are the spirit of freedom, the defense of human rights, commitment to cultural diversity and Francophony, the beautiful language spoken by France of other than French. Chairing the Republic is not inviting dictators in large unit in Paris. Chairing the Republic is use our seat on the United Nations Security Council to enact the departure of those who crush their people, like Bashar al-Assad in Syria. This is tirelessly to contribute to peace in the Middle East.

Chairing the Republic but is also know to make difficult decisions, not just following a tragedy. I think of our dead in Afghanistan, to whom I want to pay tribute, with emotion, with dignity, with respect, as the wounded who suffer in their flesh. I think about their families in the sentence. I listened to. I think their loved ones who are wondering. The murdered men did their duty. Their sacrifice commands the respect of the entire nation. But you also have the lucidity to say, beyond the dedication of the men there to their country, that our mission is complete. She was hired there over ten years by Lionel Jospin and Jacques Chirac for a specific purpose, which was to respond to the terrorist attack on the United States. I had fully approved. Well now, this mission is completed. It is time to decide that withdrawal is necessary, and I decided a long time. I will assume therefore, if the French give me in office, all the responsibility. I'll let our allies and I will ensure that it is implemented in good order, without in any way threaten the lives of our soldiers.

Chairing the Republic then, is to give the best of oneself, without expecting something in return reward nor recognition. It is to be ambitious for his country and to humble yourself. Is to give oneself fully, completely to the cause that has been chosen, because the only worthwhile: to serve France. Chairing the Republic is to put the power of the state at the service of citizens. It is lead by example, including in his behavior and his own compensation. And I do not say this with ease or convenience or to please, but simply because it must be a principle. I will make 30% compensation of the President and members of government, just to give an example when, precisely, efforts are required to our citizens.

Chairing the Republic is to this function that I prepared. I know the size, hardness. I want to do this by being worthy of your trust and staying true to myself. Everything in my life has prepared me for this date: my commitments, my responsibilities, my successes, my trials. I always follow the line that I was attached to me.



I am a socialist. The Left, I have not inherited. It took me lucidly decide to go to her. I grew up in Normandy in a rather conservative family. But this family has given me the freedom to choose, for his education. I thank my parents. My father, because he had ideas contrary to mine and he helped me affirm my convictions. My mother, because she had a generous soul and she sent me what is more beautiful: the ambition to be useful.

The Left, I chose it, I loved her, I dreamed with François Mitterrand in the conquest. The Left, I strongly advocated in her achievements: those of 1981, those of 1988. The Left, I served as the Republic elected as MP. The Left, I have directed with Lionel Jospin, when we all gouvernions the country with honor and I claim advanced. Today, it is I who represents you. It is I who carries your hope. It is I who carries the obligation to win. It is I who will lead you in this fight to win, that you wait for too long, ten years. Ten years as a straight moved in power and she undoes what we have built.

Dear friends, let me tell you more. I am an elected representative of rural France where farmers demonstrate the excellence of their work without receiving the income they deserve. I am of the Limousin, Corrèze of this I have learned so much. I was mayor of Tulle, a small town in size, just 17 000 inhabitants, but great in history. Tulle was a city of Resistance. She suffered martyrdom: 99 hanged, deported 200 June 9, 1944, carried by Nazi barbarism. Each year, 9 June, a procession moved off the streets of my city to recall the memory of those executed. A wreath hangs on the balcony, where a lifeless body swayed slowly. I have their name in the head. These are my heroes. I will never forget them. They make me move forward. They remind me every moment the beautiful lesson of humanity of those who sacrificed their lives, their lives for our freedom. The resistant had no fame, no reward, no medal. They sought nothing, they did not ask for bonuses or stock options for their shares. They were men, women proud. It was not ambition or greed that motivated them. These have saved our honor because they first believed in the values ​​of France. Well that's the fight that enlightens me today.

I am chairman of a General Council, the Council of Corrèze. A famous department for its politicians, but is demanding. Whoever succeeds in obtaining support at least the qualities of the heart, even if he is not always right. Nothing was given to me. What I ripped off, I won and I did grow. I declared my candidacy for the presidential elections there almost a year. I managed to convince voters of citizens' primary, when few imagined my success in the beginning. I made sure, after this consultation, to bring together all those who were presented to it, and I greet them with affection, as I greet Martine Aubry that allowed us to gather together, and that Jean-Michel Baylet we also brings the Left Radicals.

Dear friends, if I'm here, this is the fruit of this obstinacy. Chance has nothing to do. It is a culmination. You know me, some long since thirty years. This is a lease that reward for some and for others, loyalty and tenacity. It's true that I do not show myself, I remain myself, is my strength. What you see here is what I am. I want to seize power, but I'm not greedy, I just want to put it at the service of French. Power, I know the need, utility, and I know the drifts. I am placid with these things, I made the commitment my entire life. I sacrificed a lot. I have given, I got the time, labor, beatings, but I have a consistency, I stand, I am consistent in my choices. I did not need to change constantly to be myself. I realize that the state, to be effective, requires a safe direction in his head, but there can be no success if the one who is the head of the country, specifically, does not associate Others, not mobilizing minds, not making the best of what there is in each of us, is not the voice of the gathering, reconciliation and appeasement. I do not like honors, protocols and palaces. I claim a simplicity that is not successful, but the brand of authentic authority.

I'll tell you my secret, secret I have kept for a long time but you've probably discovered: I like people, when others are fascinated by money. I take every look as an expectation, each face as a curiosity, every handshake as an encounter, every smile as an opportunity.

I know the state to be born and to have it served in many ways. Some accuse me of never having been minister. When I see those who are today, it reassures me! These are the same who criticized in his time François Mitterrand to have been eleven times! And need I remind, keeping the comparison, Georges Clemenceau only became Minister and President of the Council at 65? But I will not wait until then, I promise you! I also know that history can be tragic, that nothing is ever that everything that is believed irreversible, unchangeable, unassailable can be reached at any time at its heart. The crisis, fanaticism, terrorism, not to mention natural disasters: we are never alone. The course of mankind is not alone. He knows inexplicable drying up, and sometimes unthinkable excesses. The statesman must prepare for everything, that is to say the worst, and be alert tirelessly continue the fight that is his for progress, for human dignity, for democracy, not let not divert mood movements, patterns, for circumvention of history, take its course. I am an optimist of the will. I think the best is possible, that a people united around a common project built its own history. I am convinced that the French now expect strong leadership, a meeting on the essential, and especially from the one to lead them, a consideration, a calm, respect, trust.

Trust is a word that is not in the laws or the regulations, which costs nothing but can yield much. It controls many things. It does not solve anything by itself, but it allows all if one knows how to seize. And that's why I want to restore the confidence of French.

Two key dates have marked my political life, a violent, April 21, 2002, an injury that I still carry with me, I have the trace, that terrible evening or the extreme right, for lack of vigilance and alertness face the threat facing the dispersion, puts the Left offside and allows the Right to settle for ten years. I have learned all the lessons. I will not let do, I will not let the workers, employees, move towards a political family that has never done anything to serve the interests of those classes. I will not let a party caricaturing problems without providing any credible solution. I will not let a political stand as the people's voice when she simply wants to use him. I will not let get away in the name of France citizens, our friends, who may think that the enemy is here, it has a color and religion, which would be contrary to the very principles of our Republic. I will not let use anger and distress to challenge the Republic, European integration and human rights. I will not let a political party demanding the restoration of the death penalty. I will fight, I will fight until my last breath to ward off that risk and to ensure that the presidential election be truncated. Because it expected by a large majority of our citizens, it is ultimately the choice between Left and Right, that is to say the most clear choice to allow our country to make a real decision.

The other date to be engraved in my memory is happier is 10 May 1981. I was 26 years old. I know what she has meant to all who had attenu for decades, so long So now, finally, the alternation, the happiness of victory. There were of course other success for the Left: 1988, 1997, but they could not have the same scope. And so far, I do not want to pour into nostalgia. The epic of the Left can not be reduced to exceptional moments: 1936, 1981. Me, I want to install the Left over time, and if I am a candidate is to pick up the thread to continue walking, to set the Left agreement with France. I want friends here and beyond, see your happiness May 6, joy, I want to see the joy of conquest, enthusiasm audacity, and yet the excesses of freedom. I want to win with you the right to preside France.

I know our country, I traveled, traveled so many times and never tire of discovering it. I know that change its cities, creating, undertaking, its spaces shaped by the patient work of our farmers, the maritime area worked by fishermen, its places of production where the intelligence of employees is combined with the competence of engineers. I do not know anything either of our villages where silence has done and where life is removed, I do not know anything about these relegation neighborhoods mingle anger, despair, and despite all the talent and the will to succeed. It is this that I want France to serve you.



Like you, I know the seriousness of the hour we live. A financial crisis destabilizes States, huge public debt markets give all rights. Europe is unable to protect its currency from speculation. Our own country is facing record unemployment and sinks into recession as much as in austerity. Doubt is installed. I measure it every day. This charge distrust of Europe and even to democracy. It turns into indignation at the injustice of a system of political impotence, indecency haves. It degenerates into private violence, family, social, urban, with this terrible idea that settled, which diffuses into our collective consciousness: the march towards progress would have stopped, our children would be condemned to live less well than us. Well, it's against that idea that I fight. That is why I am running for president. I want to restore the confidence of French in their lives: France has gone through in its history many trials, many crises, wars, revolutions, it has always overcome them, always refusing the reduction, termination, withdrawal, never succumbing to conformism, to fear, to the law of the strongest, but remaining true to the values ​​of the Republic, going to draw in itself the courage to accomplish the efforts to defend its social model, to keep his pride in raising his head, looking lucidly the challenge to face, debating freely and making the necessary choices.

There has never, I mean never, only one possible policy, regardless of the seriousness of the situation. History is not the addition of successive fatalities, it teaches us that there are always multiple paths. The way that I propose, the recovery in justice, is the hope in the Republican promise.

But before talking about my project, I'll tell you one thing. In this battle which undertakes, I'll tell you who my opponent, my real opponent. It has no name, no face, no party, he never presented his candidacy, so he will not be elected, yet he governs. This adversary is the world of finance. Before our eyes, in twenty years, finance has taken control of the economy, society and even our lives. Now it is possible in a fraction of a second to move dizzying sums of money, threatening states.

This influence has become an empire. And the crisis since September 15, 2008, far from weakening, has further strengthened. Face it, this finance, regulation promises, incantations of "never again" have been ignored. The G20 followed one another without tangible result. In Europe, 16 summits last chance were summoned to see after the final resolution. Banks, saved by states, now eat the hand that fed them. Rating agencies, rightly criticized for not having seen anything of the subprime crisis, decide the fate of sovereign debt of major countries, thus justifying austerity increasingly painful. As for hedge funds, far from having disappeared, they are still the drivers of the destabilization that seeks us. Thus, finance is free from any rule of all morality, of control.

Saying that, I do not show any leniency provided on the five-year period which comes to an end. But there is no longer the issue. Judgments are made. Started in the twirls, this five-year period ends in turmoil. Leaded by tax breaks for the wealthy, it ends with increases of levies imposed on all French. Inaugurated with a promise to return to full employment, it ends with record unemployment. And what about deficits, debt, deindustrialisation, demolition of public services, including school?



One word sums up this presidency: degradation. Everything has deteriorated. I am not speaking of a note. I'm not even talking about the public accounts. I speak of living conditions, behaviors, just the country's situation. A injustice in the choices, inconsistent decisions have been added grabbing power and collusion with the powerful, with the ultimate paradox of omnipotence will lead to an admission of impotence. That is why change is not only that of a president, a government or a majority. We must go much further: it is a policy shift, perspective, size need to provide our country April 22 and May 6

If finance is the enemy, then we must face it with our means and first at home, without weakness but not unrealistic, thinking that it will be a long struggle, a hard test but we'll have to show our weapons. Mastering finance start here by passing a law that will require banks to separate their credit activities of their speculative operations. No French bank may not have presence in tax havens.

Toxic financial products, that is to say unconnected to the needs of the real economy will be banned outright. The stock options will be deleted. And boxes bonus Finally, I will propose a tax on all financial transactions, not the recovery of the stock market tax, which will be done and that was deleted a few months ago - is tell you consistency ! No, I will propose a real tax on financial transactions, with those in Europe who want to implement it with us. I also propose, if we want to avoid being judged by the rating agencies which we question the legitimacy to implement at European level a public rating agency.

The other point from European finance is. The euro zone is falling apart before our eyes. France must recover the ambition to change the orientation of Europe. It will require knowing convince and train our partners. I am often asked, "But how will you do to bring your allies in this Europe, on the positions that you defend, since the outgoing president did not succeed"? But what will change is the French vote, which will be our leverage to convince. The destinies of Europe and France are linked, the greatness of France can not be separated from the strength of Europe. We need Europe, it should help us out of the crisis but not impose an endless austerity that can lead us into a spiral of depression. The disciplines are needed, the commitments will have to be taken for deleveraging and be respected. But it is the growth that will enable us to achieve the most surely. That is why I will propose to our partners a responsibility pact, governance and growth. I renégocierai the European Treaty resulting from the agreement of December 9 to give him the size he lacks, that is to say coordination of economic policies, industrial projects, the revival of major works in the field of energy and then to dominate the instruments of speculation, a European fund that would have the means to act on the market with the intervention of the European Central Bank that should be ultimately at the service of the fight against speculation. I will act for the creation of Eurobonds to pool some of the sovereign debt, to finance major projects. I will defend, because that is the meaning of the European project, a democracy that involve national parliaments and European decisions that should concern the states. I will propose a new trade policy in Europe that will prevent the unfair competition that will set strict rules on social, environmental, reciprocity. An ecological contribution will be installed at the borders of Europe to complement this device. I will continue to act for a just parity of the euro vis-à-vis the US dollar. I will not accept that the Chinese currency is still inconvertible while this first commercial power ends up being excess without its currency, ever, be reassessed.

Europe has many faults, I know them. At the same time it is our common good. Defend her, she needs it, she deserves it! What is missing in Europe is the movement - and it is a European heart says so - but not in any Europe: the move towards a Europe of growth, towards a Europe of solidarity, towards a protective Europe. It is the vocation of France that has to build it with Germany and with countries willing to accompany us.

None of the major challenges facing Europe can not be solved without the pact of friendship in equality, the French and Germans have developed after the war. I therefore propose to our German friends of truth and a new relationship of equality. In turn, they will have to show solidarity. Germany will not remain strong in a weak Europe. It will not remain rich in an impoverished Europe, that is the truth. I know that many in Germany include. But ours, we must also make efforts, competitiveness efforts, fiscal justice. That is the pact he'll have to build and open a new cycle in Europe, that of economic, industrial, energy between our two countries. That is why, in January 2013 - it was very close, it will be some months after the appointment of 6 May - if the French give me the mandate, I will propose to the Chancellor of Germany the development of a new Franco-German Treaty, the Elysée Treaty half a century after the founding of De Gaulle and Adenauer who hired momentum for both countries.

Dear friends, I want to restore the confidence of France in Europe. I now want to tell you what I want for the recovery of our country. What is at issue is not the sovereignty of yesterday, when our country was threatened. What is at stake is the sovereignty of the Republic face to markets and globalization. That's why I want to straighten France, recover financially, economically straighten, straighten industrially. Our country has too long since abandoned its industry, blinded by the chimera of a fabless economy without machinery, as if the immaterial could replace the labor of the worker, foreman, engineer and its know do. Reindustrialisation of France will be my priority. I will create a public investment bank which, in addition to regional funds, will accompany the development of strategic companies.

















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