In three exclusive episodes of "In the heart of history", François Hollande returns for an hour and a half on his conquest and his exercise of power. And analyzes, in hollow, the reasons of the "French malaise" since 2009.

The exercise is new. For Europe 1, François Hollande has agreed to give a new perspective on his quinquennium. In three episodes of the podcast "In the heart of history", the former president returns, with Fabrice d'Almeida, on his conquest and his exercise of power. Moreover, the socialist analyzes the last decade of political history to give his analysis of the reasons for the "French malaise".

"Neither a biography nor a trial"

For Francois Hollande does not examine so much the slightest jolts of his quinquennium that what they have been able to say about society or the French political class. "We tried to keep what, in our opinion, illuminates France," sums up Fabrice d'Almeida. "It's not a biography or a trial."

For example, marriage mobilization for same-sex couples is similar to the movement of "yellow vests", just like "Night Stand". That the former head of state goes back to the mandate of his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, to seek the source of the current socio-economic difficulties. Listen to François Hollande's account of his conquest of power in this first episode:

The former first secretary of the Socialist Party also dwells on the announced disappearance of political parties, started with their phagocyting by The Republic on the move! Parties that have, for him, still many responsibilities of "popular education" and training of political staff, and whose disappearance does not bode well. "This will be the reign of individual nominations driven solely by their own ambition." Any resemblance to existing characters has, of course, nothing fortuitous ...

A "witness actor of his time"

François Hollande goes back and forth, without forgetting, of course, taking advantage of it, and sometimes, sometimes, taking a few liberties with the truth. Because if the socialist president sometimes expresses some regrets, they are of pure form and method, rarely of substance. The El Khomri law finally only included "one mistake, it is that his first presentation was too brutal". Listen to the former president tell his five years in the second part of the series:

Similarly with the disqualification of nationality for binational terrorists. François Hollande presents his abandonment as a decision of wisdom in view of the lack of consensus. In reality, the soap opera lasted months, the president was warned of the reluctance of his camp and ended up blaming the senatorial right for his renunciation.

If he regularly feels the "desire to justify himself", the former president does not adopt a stance of revenge. "The goal was to distance his five-year term," says Fabrice d'Almeida. "What amused him first and foremost was to make history, to position himself as an actor witness of his time." Without evasion. And the story remains open as you can see by listening to the last part of the special series:

This account of almost 1h30, face to face with Fabrice d'Almeida, is to be found in three episodes:

  • Conquer France
  • Governing France
  • Observe France