MILAN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Former French Socialist President Francois Hollande may decide to run for president in 2027, but only if he sees a real chance of winning, he told Italian daily la Repubblica on Monday.
• "Running for the presidency is not a decision to be taken lightly, all the more so for a former head of state like myself," Holland said in the interview.
• He added he would consider running only under exceptional circumstances and only if there was a realistic chance of reaching the runoff and ultimately win.
• Hollande, 72, was France's president from 2012 to 2017. The French presidential election will be held in the spring of 2027.
• French far-right leader Marine Le Pen maintained her lead for the first-round of the presidential election and far-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon was second in most tested scenarios, according to a poll released two weeks ago.
• Macron’s former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe is the only centre-right candidate to come ahead of Mélenchon in one of the scenarios tested, and to tie with him in another. The other candidates would finish behind Mélenchon in all scenarios.
• "The France of 2027 bears little resemblance to the one I governed. We are facing a more threatening, more dangerous and harsher world, and a European continent that has become a target for powers such as the United States, China and Russia. Europe is confronting an existential crisis," former president Hollande also said.
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Louise Heavens)
