The left-winger said that the former president, the most unpopular French leader since the Second World War, had tried to ridicule his former right-wing rival Alain Juppé.
Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, the outgoing first secretary of France’s Socialist party, said former French president François Hollande had had every intention of running for a second term in office, but that his re-election dreams had been crushed by his more popular sidekick, Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Hollande attempted to “instrumentalise” Mr Macron during his final years in office, because he was convinced that having a young and dynamic minister by his side throughout the presidential campaign would attract the youth vote and increase his chances of re-election, Mr Cambadélis told France’s RTL radio.
Mr Macron, a 39-year-old centrist and Mr Hollande’s former economy minister and protégé, left the Socialist government in August 2016 after forming his own political movement, Republic on the Move. He was elected to power in May after garnering more than 60 per cent of final-round votes.
Mr Cambadélis said: “Mr Macron’s strong will had not gone unnoticed by Mr Hollande, who then tried to instrumentalise his minister politically.
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“Mr Hollande truly believed that having the young ‘media darling’ on his campaign team would boost his chances of winning the race for the Elysée palace.”
The former left-wing head of state, Mr Cambadélis continued, was trying to discredit his then-opponent, 72-year-old right-winger Alain Juppé, by positioning himself as a modern leader and making Mr Juppé come across as the “uncool” candidate.
Mr Cambadélis said: “Mr Hollande knew that Mr Macron was a rising political star, and unknowingly contributed to his successor’s rapid ascent to power. But, unfortunately for Mr Hollande, Mr Macron had other plans for his future. What’s more, Mr Macron knew full well he was being instrumentalised by the president.”
Mr Hollande, Mr Cambadélis, added, had no idea that Mr Macron wanted to become president, and had quit as economy minister to launch his own presidential campaign: “He really didn’t see it coming.”