The presidency of François Hollande began on 15 May 2012 when the Constitutional Council announced the official results from the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

during his inauguration and ended on 14 May 2017 when Emmanuel Macron was officially inaugurated as the 25th President of France. Hollande, a leader of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

, worked alongside Prime Minister

Jean-Marc Ayrault Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...

until 2014 then

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (, , ; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who has served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hol ...

until 2016 and finally

Bernard Cazeneuve Bernard Guy Georges Cazeneuve (; born 2 June 1963) is a French politician and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 December 2016 to 15 May 2017. A member of the Socialist Party, he represented Manche’s 5th constituency in the ...

until the inauguration of Macron in 2017. Hollande's presidency was dominated by the rising unemployment rate, the protests against reforms of the Labor code including the

El Khomri law The loi n° 2016-1088 du 8 août 2016 relative au travail, à la modernisation du dialogue social et à la sécurisation des parcours professionnels is a piece of national legislation in France relating to employment. It is commonly known as the El ...

and the fight against Islamic Terrorism, mainly against the

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

. François Hollande declared in December 2016 that he was not going to run for a second term following low approval ratings. He was succeeded by former Minister of Economy, Emmanuel Macron.

Domestic policy

Economy

The key economic focuses for François Hollande were the rising unemployment rate, income inequality and the deficit. François Hollande said he underestimated the economic crisis when he first came into office, the first Budget of the Hollande presidency included several tax measures that were badly received mainly due to the increase in the taxation of capital gains. The increase meant that an entrepreneur who sold their company after 10 years would have to pay a 45 percent income tax rate, plus 15.5 percent in social contributions, so amounting to over 60 percent in tax. A movement labelled "les pigeons" was launched by entrepreneurs opposing the new tax measure. Hollande also abolished the increase on VAT that Sarkozy introduced though he later said that he regretted his decision. A tax increase was introduced by Jean-Marc Ayrault to make up for the public deficit, the tax was estimated to create a revenue of 30 million euro a year, this was later reversed in favor of the creation of tax credits to make the economy for competitive. Eventually

supply side economics Supply-side economics is a macroeconomic theory that postulates economic growth can be most effectively fostered by lowering taxes, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply-side economics, consumers will benefit fr ...

was adopted by the government and taxation was lowered after poor performance and tax migration by individuals with higher incomes, including

Bernard Arnault Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault (; born 5 March 1949) is a French business magnate, investor, and art collector. He is the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, the world's largest luxury ...

. Employment was one of the key focuses for Hollande, he set an objective reversing the rising unemployment by the end of his first term. By the end of Hollande's term, unemployment had increased by 25%. By Q3 2015, unemployment was at the highest level in France since 1997. The Ayrault government put forward several plans to try to curb the youth employment including Law 2012-1189 which aimed to help young people with a lack of employment due to no training. This created the "''emplois d'avenir''" which gave young people between the ages of 16 and 25 contract ranging from one to three years in the public sector. In March 2013, proposal no. 33 otherwise known as ''"contrat de génération"'' was introduced with the intention to find young people long-term contracts and make it easier for them to integrate into the labor market while securing the jobs of anyone above the age of 55. The proposal offered a €4000 subsidy to firms under 300 employees that employed anyone under the age of 26 without firing anyone over 57 while businesses with over 300 employees would need to produce a plan with the help of a trade union. The plan led to

Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, Seine-et-Marne, Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disney ...

planning to hire over 600 under 26's by 30 September 2016 and

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...

taking on 2000 young people a year under student contracts and 800 young people permanently. The proposal will cost €920,000 by 2016. The El Khomri Law, which sought to make it easier for companies to lay off workers, reduce overtime payments for hours worked above the 35-hour work week and reduce severance payments that workers were entitled to if their company had made them redundant was passed in August 2016. The law was intended to make France's economy more competitive. During the 2012 presidential election, Hollande said he wanted to reduce the government deficit to 3% of GDP by 2013. He attempted to do this by raising taxes and cutting public spending. In 2013, Hollande postponed the objective to 2014 following rising unemployment and slow growth. In 2014, Hollande announced a plan to reduce spending by 50 billion euros between 2015 and 2017. The draft budget for 2016, announced in October 2015, showed a continued freeze on the wage of civil servants, a decrease in grants to local and regional governments, a reduction in the public sector wage and a reduction in taxes for most tax brackets. The deficit reached 3.5% of GDP in 2015. The 2017 budget announced a target for the deficit to reach 2.7% of GDP. The government's fiscal oversight committee, The Council of Public Finances said this was "unlikely." Even though Hollande criticised Sarkozy when

Standard & Poor S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is cons ...

downgraded France's financial rating, agencies have repeatedly downgraded France's rating during Hollande's presidency. In 2012,

Moody's Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides internationa ...

downgraded France from Aa1 to Aaa with a negative outlook economically. S&P downgraded France in November 2013 from AA+ to AA. Fitch downgraded France to AA with a stable outlook in 2014 In 2015, Moody's downgraded France for a second time to Aa2.

Housing policy

In 2013, Hollande introduced proposal no. 22 better known as the Duflot Law. This proposal aimed to regulate the prices of rent and cap real estate fees. This was intended to stop properties in cities like

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

from being highly priced. Rents following the Duflot Law were determined by decree and must be inferior by 20% to the market price. The Duflot Law was praised by the left in France but criticised by economists and property developers. Cécile Duflot later was replaced by Sylvia Pinel and a law superseding the Duflot Law was introduced named the Pinel Act in 2014. The Pinel Act is intended to encourage investment in new housing construction by offering investors a tax reduction of up to €63,000 on their personal income tax. The reduction in taxes on income is spread over 6 years, 9 years or 12 years and the construction must meet the energy and thermal regulations and economic standards. In 2014, the number of house sales in France dropped to its lowest levels in 17 years. In 2015, larger fines were introduced to landlords with housing that doesn't meet the regulations set by the government.

Education

Hollande promised during the 2012 presidential campaign to create 60,000 teaching jobs. Between 2012 and 2016, more than 40,000 teaching jobs have been created. In 2013, the Law on Higher Education and Research was introduced in an attempt to add more national limits to universities and to attempt to combat the lack of cooperation between the state and the universities. Hollande's government also attempted to reform the school time taken by students in an attempt to reduce the school load.

Healthcare

Hollande attempted to modernize France's healthcare system in January 2016 with the Minister of Social Affairs and Health Marisol Touraine proposing a new law to accomplish this. During Hollande's presidency, cigarette packages were also neutralized.

Justice

Christiane Taubira Christiane Marie Taubira (; born 2 February 1952) is a French politician who served as Minister of Justice of France in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean-Marc Ayrault and Manuel Valls under President François Hollande from 2012 until 20 ...

served as Minister of Justice from 2012 to 2016 and pushed through several reforms such as legalising same-sex marriage and putting France into a state of emergency. In 2012, Priority Security Zones were created in France under Interior Minister Manuel Valls, these planned to restrict crime and add more security into communes where crime was more rampant. A study conducted found that drug trafficking, one of the main reasons these zones were created, were not affected by the establishment of the safe zones. There are 751

sensitive urban zone A sensitive urban zone (french: Zone urbaine sensible, ZUS) is an urban area in France defined by the authorities to be a high-priority target for city policy, taking into consideration local circumstances related to the problems of its residents. ...

s in France. After the November 2015 Paris Attacks, 5,000 police jobs, 2,500 jobs within the state justice system and 1,000 immigration customs jobs were slated to be created within two years. Better equipment was also provided to police following the attacks.

Defense

During François Hollande's presidency, the French Armed Forces were planned to lose 34,000 jobs by 2019, until the November 2015 Paris Attacks where he increased the defence budget by 3.5 billion euros and 18,500 jobs were ultimately kept. France exported more than 10 billion euros worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia in 2015. and has been labeled as the fourth biggest exporter of weapons globally. Following the 2016 Nice Attacks, Hollande reestablished the French National Guard for the first time since 1872. The National Guard will serve as an operational reserve for both the army and the police. France, then chaired by François Hollande, delivered tens of thousands of bombs to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in 2016. He affirmed that Paris authorized the delivery to the Saudi forces of 41,500 shells from the Junghas company (a subsidiary of the French industrial group,

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...

), 3,000 anti-tank shells, 10,000 smoke shells, 50,000 high explosive shells and 50,000 rockets produced by Nexter to the Emirates.

Social policy

LGBT rights

At the beginning of Hollande's term,

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

and adoption for LGBT couples were legalised after the longest parliamentary debate in the history of the Fifth Republic. The law was opposed by right wing protestors and lobbying was done to prevent the law to the Constitutional Council, though the challenge was rejected.

Women's rights

In 2012, at the start of his term, Hollande promised to lead a global fight to end violence against women. His government have been trying experiments to encourage gender equality, including teaching children in classrooms the "ABCD's of equality."

Pension reform

An announced plan in 2013 consists of a package of measures to revise the pension system. It aims to help with the estimated deficit of 20 billion euros by 2020. This is following a similar plan by François Fillion's government in 2010. Funds allocated to retirement homes were reduced by 200 million euros in 2017.

Immigration

Hollande's policies regarding immigration have been radically different to his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy who threatened numerous times to remove France from the Schengen area. Hollande attempted to give foreigners the right to vote in local elections in 2012 but abandoned the plan in 2015. Hollande has said that France has a "problem with Islam" and that he thinks that is too much immigration. Hollande proposed removing dual citizenship from terrorists though abandoned the plan after backlash within the Socialist Party.

International policy

Hollande has been branded a neo-conservative due to his willingness to engage in Mali and in Syria though Hollande has intervened in foreign affairs less than Jacques Chirac or François Mitterrand. Hollande's diplomatic management has been compared to Nicolas Sarkozy's despite the differences in personality.

Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan

Hollande pledged during the 2012 presidential campaign that he would start the withdrawal of French troops in Afghanistan. He began an early withdrawal in 2012 following a visit to Kabul where he addressed French soldiers and told them their "mission was finished. This was despite criticisms from several heads of state, including Prime Minister David Cameron.

Intervention in Mali

Military intervention in Mali was the first major intervention during François Hollande's presidency, the intervention began with Operation Serval on January 11, 2013. The intervention was launched in an attempt to stop the advance of Islamist insurgent groups who had taken most of the North of Mali and had begun to move towards the capital,

Bamako Bamako ( bm, ߓߡߊ߬ߞߐ߬ ''Bàmakɔ̌'', ff, 𞤄𞤢𞤥𞤢𞤳𞤮 ''Bamako'') is the capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2009 population of 1,810,366 and an estimated 2022 population of 2.81 million. It is located on the Niger Rive ...

. Operation Serval was completed on July 11, 2014. France began to withdraw its 3,000 troops in 2013 as an UN peacekeeping force was stationed in Mali. Operation Barkhane was started on 1 August 2014 in an attempt to stop Islamic terrorism in the region after clearing insurgents from Mali.

Operation Sangaris

Hollande launched

Operation Sangaris Operation Sangaris was a military intervention of the French military in the Central African Republic, from late 2013 till 2016. It was the seventh French military intervention there since the independence of the country in 1960. On 30 October 20 ...

in December 2013 after international aid was requested by President François Bozizé following advance by

Séléka Séléka CPSK-CPJP-UFDR was an alliance of rebel militia groups that subjugated the Central African Republic (CAR) on 24 March 2013. After its official dissolution in September 2013, the remaining rebel groups became known as Ex-Séléka. Sél� ...

, a rebel group that had been able to capture parts of the capital. In October 2013, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

's state lost the ability to maintain order and the United Nations began to voice concerns of potential genocide. In 2016, Operation Sangaris was ended and deemed a success with the government claiming that it had stopped the fighting in C.A.R.

Syria

François Hollande has been one of the biggest opponents against Bashar al-Assad. Hollande had been one of the biggest advocates for military intervention in Syria and in 2013 declared France ready to conduct air strikes against the Assad regime following the uses of chemical warfare during the Syrian Civil War though

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

's final decision to not launch strikes against Syria left France diplomatically isolated and ultimately, the strikes weren't launched. François Hollande has said that France supplied weapons to the

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...

and to the Syrian Rebels. In April 2017, Hollande spoke in favor of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

's strikes against the Assad Regime after suspicions that the regime used chemical warfare against civilians.