French Prez Macron’s ascendancy is “over”, former head of state Francois Hollande said Saturday, after his former protege called a snap election likely to hand massive gains to the far right. Suffering at the time from abysmal poll ratings, Socialist Hollande did not himself stand for a second term at the 2017 election. Running as a pro-business centrist, his former economy minister Macron pulled off a surprise win that shattered traditional governing parties on the left and the right.Now just two years into the younger man’s second term, “Macronism is over, if indeed it ever existed. But it’s over, I say it with no special hostility,” Hollande said. “I don’t mean that his presidential term is coming to an end, that’s something different. But what he may have represented for a time is over,” he added. “The far right has never been so strong.”
