Francois Hollande and Gerard Larcher - The president of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron presides over the pantheonization ceremony of Maurice Genevoix, on November 11, 2020, at the Pantheon, Paris.

Induction ceremony of Maurice Genevoix and "Those of 14" in the Pantheon as part of the commemoration of the 102nd anniversary of the armistice of 1918 and the centenary of the burial of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe.

Paris, November 11, 2020 // 04SIPA_00504866_000107 / 2011120943 / Credit: Lemouton / Pool / SIPA / 2011120945 -

Lemouton / Pool / SIPA

Former President François Hollande, who will visit François Mitterrand's grave in Jarnac (Charente) on Friday for the 25th anniversary of his death, affirms that "call for the rally" of the left, "without a leader to embody the alternative, is a vain step ”, in an interview Thursday with the daily newspaper

Sud Ouest.

“Calling for the gathering of scattered political families without a central force and without a leader to embody the alternative is a sympathetic but vain step.

The union is not a fight, it is a dynamic ”, declares the ex-president.

"Candidates are always found, but without a dynamic and a project to carry them, they are personalities, not possible contenders for victory", insists François Hollande.

"The crisis should convince the Socialists that their time has come"

According to him, “in times of crisis, where the essential is in question, collective values, solidarity, public services remain the best answers.

That should convince the Socialists that their time has come back, beyond the opposition necessary for economic decisions ”.

"It is not simply in relation to the number of tests, masks or vaccines that we must determine, it is in relation to the society that we want for tomorrow", adds François Hollande

The former president also believes that "what François Mitterrand was able to do in two seven-year terms, to gain distance, to let the Prime Minister govern, it is no longer possible over a five-year term", with "the news channels, the social networks, immediacy ”.

“The seven-year term was too long.

The five-year term is too short.

I plead for a six-year term and legislative elections every four years, ”he repeated.

Friday, Emmanuel Macron will also go for the first time to Jarnac to pay homage to François Mitterrand, who died on January 8, 1996. The first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure will also be present, as well as Ségolène Royal, former PS candidate for the presidential election, and Johanna Rolland, PS mayor of Nantes.

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