In 2002 the then centre-left government said it would phase out nuclear power by 2022.
So Mr Hollande, a fellow member of the centre-left may come as a welcome change.
Centre-left leader, Pier Luigi Bersani, has backed the front-runner, Franco Marini, as candidate for president.
The centre-left failed to gain an overall majority at February's general election despite coming first.
The old group - unlike the new one - had a few centre-left Eurosceptics.
His centre-left European allies were willing for a Briton to take the foreign-affairs job.
If true, this could damage the main opposition, the centre-left Democratic United Party (DUP).
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The centre-left governments that have ruled since 1990 have signed free-trade agreements with half the world.
Mr Berlusconi had cleared Naples of the garbage mountains that helped topple the previous, centre-left government.
In Germany and Scandinavia the centre-left parties share a desire for equality and generous welfare states.
The biggest and most intractable of them has historic links with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
"We know how military interventions start off, " Alain Frachon writes in the centre-left Le Monde .
France, writes Nicolas Demorand in the centre-left Liberation , has stopped Mali becoming a "rogue state".
Indeed, economic woes provide the third explanation why disillusioned voters preferred him to the centre-left.
Grigory Yavlinsky, the liberal-minded leader of Yabloko, the main centre-left party, has fought an energetic campaign.
Senior sources have expressed concern that parts of the intelligence services are working against the centre-left.
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Such a move would certainly make a centre-left alliance a much more formidable electoral force.
Though the centre-left coalition government under Giuliano Amato has not done badly, it is in disarray.
For now, the Pinochet affair has united Chile's right-wing parties and divided the centre-left.
The president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, in effect led the centre-left campaign in Italy.
PT's chances would be boosted were it to join forces with other centre-left groups.
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Would his movement support, say, a centre-left coalition in exchange for widespread reforms of the political system?
The centre-left SPD has been the junior partner in Mrs Merkel's coalition for the past four years.
His centre-left bloc won the lower house vote but failed to secure a majority in the Senate.
In places like Chile, moderate centre-left groups have won elections by promising to continue orthodox economic policies.
And when the centre-left won the 1996 election, it was he who put Mr Prodi in charge.
The comments were swiftly condemned by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which is ahead in the polls.
Speaking for his centre-left trade union, Mr Zuza grumbles that Mr Reinfeldt is too negative about Saab.
The third RAI channel is run by the centre-left, and RAI's radio network often provided unfavourable coverage.
Were an election held now his centre-left government would find it hard to squeeze back into power.
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