François Hollande , the newly-inaugurated President of France , may be as notable for what he has not done as for what he has . He has never held national elective office despite being at the center of French politics for more than a decade , and he has never been married despite a three-decade relationship and four children with Ségolène Royale , another of the country 's top Socialist politicians . Hollande led the Socialist Party for 11 years and was leader when Royale ran unsuccessfully for president against Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 . Hollande and Royale split up a month before that election , and he is now seeing journalist Valérie Trierweiler , who appeared , smiling with him , as he celebrated his victory Sunday . He immediately spooked markets , and Germany , France 's key ally in the European Union , with his victory speech . `` Austerity can no longer be something that is inevitable , '' he said , apparently undercutting the belt-tightening that his predecessor and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have urged on European countries beset by debt . Hollande emerged as his party 's candidate for president after the downfall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn , who was once considered the Socialist favorite to defeat Sarkozy . But Strauss-Kahn was arrested in May 2011 after a New York hotel maid alleged that he tried to rape her . Charges against the former IMF chief were later dropped in the United States , but he has been warned he could be investigated in France over accusations he participated in a prostitution ring . But Hollande was not an accidental candidate despite the way he has come to power , one commentator said . `` He 's been preparing this campaign for 18 months now , much before DSK 's demise , '' journalist Agnès Poirier said , referring to Strauss-Kahn . `` Some say that he knew , like actually many others in the party , that DSK was doomed : His colorful private life was always bound to prevent his running for president , '' Poirer told CNN before the final vote . `` In that respect , he 's not a candidate by default . He 's simply a less charismatic personality than DSK and less antagonistic than Sarkozy . '' Born in 1954 in the northern city of Rouen , Hollande was the son of a doctor and a social worker . He was educated at the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration , where he met Royale in 1978 . Hollande has represented the southern Corrèze region in parliament since 1988 but has never held higher elective office than that post . The 57-year-old 's electoral appeal is built around his affability , but the candidate was dogged during the campaign by questions from even within his own party about whether he has the charisma and decisiveness to be president . Hollande said : `` There 's always a risk when the candidate becomes president : Will he deliver what is expected of him ? `` It 's a choice , it 's always an important moment for a country because it has to choose between two risks : Either you keep the candidate who is on his way out or take the new candidate that we do n't know . It 's a gamble . '' But after five years of Sarkozy 's hyperactive presidency , during which time France 's economic status has taken a knock , polls suggested voters were keen for a change from the president 's flamboyancy . Before the first round of voting , former President Jacques Chirac added his support to Hollande , though Chirac was a center-right president , like Sarkozy . Chirac biographer Jean-Luc Barré told French TV channel BFM TV : `` He said last June that he will vote for François Hollande . ... He has said it a few times since and then again 10 days ago . '' During the campaign , Hollande admitted that half of those who declare they will vote for him were primarily voting against Sarkozy . `` What the French want is coherence , stability and justice , '' Hollande said . `` If I am in a favorable position today , it 's because my fellow citizens want to make the effort to straighten out the country , and at the same time they want it to be just and equitable -- no one left out of national solidarity and no one left out of the contributions which must be made . '' To his critics that sounded as if Hollande wants to revive left-wing tax and social policies of the past , a view reinforced in the first speech of his campaign when he attacked the financial community . `` I do n't want to drive the markets crazy , I do n't want to create trouble but rather order and rules and norms . We have to struggle against financial excesses ... those who speculate with sovereign debt , those who develop financial products which have done so much harm , '' he said . But given the constraints of international finance and economic structures , observers said Hollande will not really have room to maneuver to shift France radically to the left . Hollande has been criticized for declining to spell exactly what his economic policies will be , although he has pledged to increase taxes on the rich , boost social spending and create thousands of state jobs . He has also vowed to renegotiate the eurozone fiscal agreement , but analysts said Hollande will likely be a pragmatic leader . Economy : Unspoken issue in election . The word one hears most often to describe Hollande 's style is `` sympa , '' French slang for sympathetic , but his victory also owes a great deal to Strauss-Kahn 's misfortune .
François Hollande has never held national elective office . The French president is not a member of the European Parliament and does not have any formal role in EU affairs. Hollande emerged as a candidate after fall of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn . Hollande spooked the markets by coming out against austerity in his victory speech .