2023-10-04 18:30:00
There were people there this Wednesday, October 4, 2023 in the middle of the followingnoon, on the aptly named Place de la République Française in Liège and more precisely in the buildings of the University of Liège (Opéra complex). It must be said that it is not every day that we welcome a former President of the Republic, François Hollande in this case, who exercised his presidential mandate from 2012 to 2017. “And what is more, a socialist president”, insisted (in a joke?) the rector of the University of Liège Anne-Sophie Nyssen. “You weren’t really spoiled for choice,” François Hollande immediately admitted, smiling, in front of an audience full of political science and law students from ULiège.
The French socialist was therefore present in Liège to give a conference with, as a backdrop, the presentation of his latest work, “Upheavals”, in which he depicts a world marked by crises (financial, health, security, etc.) for a decade but also a world where democracies are put to the test, by war and populism.
Clearly, the politician here is echoing the political situation in France and that of his party. As a preamble to this conference, he answered some of our questions evoking in particular the political shift that the French PS has just undergone, he who has never hidden his fear of seeing it “fading away” in the rallying to the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes). And he knows Liège and the Walloon PS well.
Here is the ideal ministerial casting for the PS following the June 2024 electionFrançois Hollande, the former President of the French Republic, exchanges with students from ULiège on the occasion of the presentation of his book “Upheavals”. ©MICHEL TONNEAU
“Élio is a friend”
”The last time I came to Liège was in 2014, during the commemorations of the 1914-18 War [NDLR : au Mémorial de Cointe], I represented France of course. But I have always kept good contacts with Liège, with its mayor and with Élio Di Rupo who is a friend,” the former president told us.
It is customary to say that Liège is the most French of cities outside France, particularly in view of its large student population and François Hollande knows this very well: “Liège is in fact a city where we love France and vice versa”. A city marked by socialism too, which is also not unknown to the ex-president who commented this Wednesday: “I have always looked with envy at the PS in Wallonia”… a party pooling many forces must- we understand, “unlike France where the PS is more fragile because it relies on local elected officials”. And a PS shaken by the rise of populism…
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This populism, the subject of his work, he therefore addressed with the many students present and to whom he wanted to deliver a message this Wednesday, that of the importance of “translating his demands through actions” and politics, “for preserve democracy.” “Those who want to try to change the world, they must not simply go on the internet and put likes on social networks. They must get involved,” he said. […] “It is political parties and political ideas” which have this capacity, replied the former French president to a student, believing that “politicians can act and must show (it)”.
François Hollande, the former President of the French Republic, discusses with students from ULiège during the presentation of his book “Upheavals”. ©MICHEL TONNEAU
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