French lawmaker with Jewish roots announces presidential run

Vincent Peillon, a former education minister of France, announced his candidacy to lead France’s Socialist Party, where he is already receiving key endorsements from the party’s left wing.

A lawmaker in the European Parliament whose mother is Jewish, Peillon on Sunday announced his candidacy to succeed President Francois Hollande and run as their party’s presidential candidate in the election in April. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo pledged her support for Peillon Monday, according to the French daily Le Figaro.

Peillon, who opposed the ban on the burkini, will face off against Prime Minister Manuel Valls in the Socialist primaries in January. Valls supported the ban on the modest swimwear on French beaches, citing what he said was its use by radical Muslims to oppress women.

His mother, Françoise Blum, was a chief researcher for the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research. His father, Gilles Peillon, was a banker, according to Le Journal de Dimanche.

In 2012, Peillon was appointed education minister and served in that role for two years.

Peillon, who rarely talks about his Jewish roots publicly, is associated with the left-wing group Jcall, which is the European counterpart of J Street.

He is the father of four children, two daughters from his first marriage to philosopher Brigitte Sitbon, and two sons from his second marriage to journalist Nathalie Bensahel. According to French media reports, Peillon’s son Eli was bar mitzvahed at a Paris synagogue in 2009.

In an interview with Le Monde, Peillon defended President Francois Hollande against his critics and vowed to continue Hollande’s course if elected president.

Hollande, who for over a year has received dismal approval ratings in polls and is considered France’s least-popular president in decades, earlier this month announced he would not seek a second term, adding others were “better suited” to lead the Socialist Party to win another term.

But Peillon said Hollande “should be proud” of his ability to lead France to economic growth following a long period of stagnation. “France’s ability to restore its public and social reserves without compromising its socialist agenda is unique,” he told Le Monde, adding he would not have run for the party’s leadership had Hollande not called it quits.

After three years of sluggish growth — 0.5 percent on average in the years 2012-2014 — France’s economy in 2015 achieved a growth rate of 1.2%. Also last year, the French economy created jobs in the private sector — 98,000 for the year as a whole — which has been encouraged by tax measures that cut labor costs.

However, many voters blame Hollande for failing to prevent a series of attacks by jihadists, including on Jewish targets, who have killed hundreds of people since 2012, the year Hollande was elected.

Polls project that the far-right National Front will win about 25 percent of the vote in April – a record-breaking figure for that party. Francois Fillon, the center-right candidate, was favored to win the election in polls conducted in early December.