The man polls say has the best shot at becoming France's next president wants to hire thousands more teachers, scrap Europe's expensive, hard-won bailout package, and pull his country back from both Afghanistan and NATO. But Socialist Francois Hollande appeals less for his platform than for his persona: the innocuous, intellectual everyman is many things that conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy is not. Hollande, 57, is tapping into a French zeitgeist wary of international finance, weary of Sarkozy's "bling-bling" personality and eager for change. While countries in struggling Europe shift to the right, France may hand the presidency to the left for the first time in a generation, with repercussions for the continent's direction and France's future. Part of Hollande's appeal is his Mr. Nice Guy image, but he still must convince voters that he's got what it takes to run a complex, nuclear-armed nation and one of the world's biggest economies. Hollande isn't the only leftist making headlines in this campaign: Firebrand far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has amassed some of the biggest crowds so far at rallies blanketed in red communist flags. Melenchon, with the charisma that the mainstream Hollande lacks, is complicating the political calculus. French voters kick off the balloting in two weeks, with 10 candidates from across the political spectrum facing off in a first-round vote on April 22 that will winnow the race down to two. The economic crisis in Europe has felled many governments in recent years. — AP
