Socialist sets out platform in campaign to unseat Sarkozy

In a combative speech in front of thousands of loudly applauding supporters, Mr Hollande promised to pull French troops out of Afghanistan, combat international financial speculators and to cut his own pay by 30 per cent if elected

Mr Hollande, a bespectacled 57-year-old career politician, has extended his lead in polls over Mr Sarkozy, his expected rival in two-round elections in April and May. But he’s virtually unknown outside France, and critics say he has limited international experience to head a nuclear-armed nation.

“Mobilise, and in three months we will make the left win and take France forward,” Mr Hollande said at the end of his nearly 90-minute speech in an exhibition hall outside Paris.

He said that if elected, he would decide by the end of May on when to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan. Shouting and waving his fist, Mr Hollande said he would rein in banks with a law separating their loan-making businesses from their “speculative” operations.

“Who is my adversary? It is the world of finance,” Mr Hollande said to cheers from the audience.

When asked “Why you?” in an interview in October, Mr Hollande first answered: “Because I can beat Nicolas Sarkozy.”

“He’s a man who has always been brave and sincere in his political expression, who always told the truth, as opposed to some [other] candidates on the left who cede to the temptation to promise too much,” said Antoine Rouillard-Perain, a 22-year-old Parisian. “Some people think that the campaign lacks dynamism, but it’s not true,” he said. “There’s three months of campaigning ahead. The campaign begins now.”

Mr Hollande is known as good on the stump and a quick-witted debater, and has built his reputation as a manager and consensus-builder more than as a visionary. He’s never run a government ministry and during his tenure the party was weakened and badly fractured.