France's opposition socialists last night selected François Hollande to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections.
The 57-year-old father of four, nicknamed Monsieur Normal, beat his rival, the party secretary Martine Aubry in the second round of the first ever primary elections to be held in France.
After he was selected Hollande said he was "aware of the heavy and serious job ahead" in his quest to become the next president of the French Republic.
"It is with pride and responsibility that I note this evening's result," he told supporters at the Socialist party headquarters. He said he hoped to fulfil the dreams of "young people who hope for a better life than ours".
"This is the French dream I want to revive," he said.
Hollande pledged to reverse Sarkozy-era cuts in school funding and defend "equality and progress" at a time when many voters in France and around the world are angry over economic troubles and the sway that financial markets hold over politics.
With 2.2 million votes counted after last night's run-off voting the Socialist party said Hollande a large majority with 56% of the votes compared with 44% for Aubry. The party estimates that more than 2.7 million people voted.
In his first speech, Hollande extended an olive branch to his rivals in the primary elections, most of whom rallied behind him for the second round vote, and to Aubry, whom he defeated.
"I am a man of unity and I have shown this," he said.
After conceding defeat as the initial results gave Hollande victory, Aubry said she "warmly congratulated" her rival. "Tonight he is our candidate for the presidential elections," she said.
"Since I became head of the Socialist party I have had but one objective, that one of us would be elected May 6, 2012. Tonight Hollande is our candidate.
"The primaries have given him even more legitimacy. I will put all my energy and all my force so that in seven months time he is our president of the Republic."
Hollande had polled nine percentage points ahead of Aubry last Sunday in the first round of the presidential elections, but as the vote was open to all voters on the electoral role prepared to pay €1 euro to the Socialist Party and sign a declaration of left.
Hollande's girlfriend journalist Valérie Trierweiler announced on Twitter: "To my journalist and photographer friends. Give me time. Time to understand and learn. But I'll learn fast."
Ségolène Royal, Hollande's former partner and mother of his four children as well as the Socialist Party's unsuccessful candidate for the 2007 presidential election whichi Sarkozy won, also congratulated him. "The first step towards the presidential election has succeeded and it is a great success. The success of the people's participation and the success of our candidate François Hollande who has clearly come first. Now is the time for union and unity."
Benoit Hamon, Socialist Party spokesman said he was a little sad that Aubry had lost. "Martine Aubry who I like very much will not be the Socialist candidate". Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, expressed similar regret but hailed Hollande as a "man of the left, a modern man".
Arnaud Montebourg, one of the six candidates in the Socialist Party primaries, who was the surprise third man in the first round of voting last Sunday had announced his support for Hollande. "We have gained a definitive leader," he said.
Sarkozy's allies urged Hollande to come out with clearer positions on the main issues that concern the French. Valerie Rosso-Debord of Sarkozy's UMP party dismissed the Socialist Party's jobs proposals and spending plans as "unrealistic and costly."
"The French should know that none of this will stand up, and at the end, they will have to pay the bill," she said last night.
Early this year, most polls showed that the Socialists' best hope for toppling Sarkozy was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who led the International Monetary Fund until he was jailed in May in the United States on charges he tried to rape a New York hotel maid.
Prosecutors later dropped the case, but Strauss-Kahn's reputation and presidential ambitions crashed.
