Really? I find that interesting. I thought Francois Hollande was pursuing purely socialist economic policies...although I remember that initially his economic plan was falling flat and he had to change his strategy.
Nope Jai, that's why I was blaming Conservative's comments about Europe and Socialism, because saying for example France is a Socialist state (by socialist I meant the very clichés you have about it) just because our current government is currently dominated by Socialist Party's politicians, this is an utterly simplistic analysis of politics. It does not mean at all our policies are entirely socialistic, they are actually social-liberal (and by social liberalism, liberalism is without no doubt the stronger one here, liberal and very much less socialist currently).
The old leaders of traditional PS representing the real socialist and leftist image and current arent the majority, reformers like the young politician and Minister of Economy Emmanuel Macron (a potential candidate for French presidency), are totally liberal and currently passed very innovative laws in favor of competition, incentive for star-ups, and many structural reforms something right party/conservative leaders even never tempted at all (known as Loi Macron, you can find a link below discussing about it if you are interested Jai).
Actually there are different currents inside the PS, some closer to far left some others closer to moderate right, liberals or even conservatives. This is the case currently, Hollande is in the "right side" of the PS, and his Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, is even more liberal or conservative compared to Hollande, as he is very much against mass immigration, in favor of banning bi-nationalist criminals from France forever, strongly enforcing some authoritarian and pro security rules (well since the terrorist attacks not surprising), recruiting massively police officers or intelligence agents, enforcing the law and strongly and sentences/penalties against people being against the Republic, defending Republican values against any religious/communitarian extremism and strengthening policies against social policies, or liberalizing employee's conditions and favoring the French bosses giving then billions of euros to appease them, everything could be considered much more like conservative policies. That's also why the traditional electorate voting for PS do not recognize themselves at all, and this also explain why in the previous elections PS faced a great decrease of voters, bored of Valls's anti social policies.
He is kinda more patriot to most of the rightwing politicians, and that's certainly because he himself was a Spaniard, people of foreign background while integrated in a society tend to be more nationalist and patriotic.
So currently social policies in France are vastly reconsidered, to give you a comparison, Manuel Valls is something comparable of what Tony Blair used to be, and most of the PS is social-liberal and very much like the New Labour in England, so yeah, very liberal actually. There are also discussion about splitting the party in two, which in my sense would be logical, because even in the National Assembly socialist politicians are disagreeing in many things, a group of Socialist deputies formed 'les frondeurs' (could be seen as the "recalcitrant" MPs), the name says it all, they are most of the real or traditionalist socialists, being most of the time against the current Valls' government.
About Macron Law some links:
http://www.english.rfi.fr/economy/20150710-french-government-rams-through-economy-law-against-left-oppositionhttp://www.oecd.org/france/the-positive-effects-expected-from-the-macron-law-show-that-france-must-pursue-its-structural-reform-initiatives.htm
Edited 1/13/2016 10:55:36