President of the General Council of Corrèze and former First Secretary of the French Socialist Party François Hollande launched his campaign in March 2011 to become the Socialist and Radical Left Party candidate for the 2012 French presidential election and announced that he would be contesting the presidential primary. Hollande made the announcement that he was running for President following his re-election as a department executive. On 16 October 2011, he won the Socialist and Radical Left Party nomination with more than 56% of the votes over First Secretary Martine Aubry, following a long campaign. On 22 April, he topped the ballot in the first round of voting in the presidential election, and on 6 May he defeated the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round run-off, becoming the