François Hollande – a Hope for Change the First Year’s Balance of the Government at the Elysee Palace

In the very first years of his presidency, François Mitterrand thought that he will really be successful on a day that another socialist was elected as a president of the Republic. This statement seemed to be prophetic with the victory of François Hollande, which took place 24 years after the victory of François Mitterrand and – after the sequential defeats of the Socialist Party’s candidates Lionel Jospin (in 1995 and 20022) and Ségolène Royal (in 2007) – allowed them finally to take the helm of the French government. The election of François Hollande was not a surprise. The very first opinion polls designated him as a winner showing the small popularity of Nicolas Sarkozy. Then one should estimate that the final electoral result obtained by François Hollande (i.e. 51.7% of the votes), from the point of view of the pre-election predictions of research institutes for the public opinion was a rather weak performance.