Hollande bows out

French President Francois Hollande's dramatic announcement that he will not seek a second term opens the way for his prime minister Manuel Valls to make a bid for power in next year's increasingly open election.

Hollande's decision to bow to historically low approval ratings and step down next year opens up the leftwing field in an election that is proving more and more unpredictable.

Valls, who had been a loyal prime minister to Hollande until recently but hinted at the weekend he might run against his boss in planned leftwing primaries, is now expected to throw his hat in the ring.

Polls show however that no leftwing candidate will reach the second round of the election in May.

Surveys currently tip rightwing Republicans party candidate Francois Fillon to become president, beating far-right National Front (FN) candidate Marine Le Pen in the runoff.

But after a wave of populism swept Donald Trump to the White House and led Britons to vote to leave the European Union, no-one is dismissing Le Pen's chances of victory.

The full field of candidates remains unknown and the role of independents such as Hollande's 38-year-old former economy minister Emmanuel Macron is difficult to predict.

In a solemn TV address Thursday in which he defended his troubled four years in power, Hollande said: "I have decided that I will not be a candidate."

Valls hailed Hollande's decision as "the choice of a true statesman".

The French press greeted the news with front-page headlines proclaiming "The End", "Goodbye, president" and "Hollande gives up", but there was also praise for his decision.