Glucksmann wins French left-wing primary with 66% of the vote
EU lawmaker Raphaël Glucksmann won France's centre-left presidential primary on Sunday with 66% of the vote. He now has to unite a divided left in a campaign increasingly shaped by the far right.
Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament, won France's centre-left primary on Sunday, choosing the candidate for the upcoming presidential race. He took 66% of the vote in the first round, an outright majority. The victory strengthens the 46-year-old, who leads the Place Publique movement, as the left's main alternative to hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
A pledge to break with Macron and Mélenchon
Speaking to party activists after the vote, Glucksmann described himself as the candidate of a break with "Macronism" and with Mélenchon's dominance of the French left. He said he is the one able to defeat the far right. He also pledged to unite in order to stop "Trumpists, coup plotters, xenophobes and demagogues" from taking control of the Republic.
Glucksmann opposes any alliance with Mélenchon. His line is broadly pro-European and pro-Ukraine, and he positions himself as a defender of liberal democracy, although he criticises some of President Emmanuel Macron's pro-business policies. In the 2024 European Parliament election, the mainstream left list he led won 14% of France's seats.
Low turnout and a blow to the Socialists
More than 120,000 people took part in the primary. That is far fewer than in the past: 2.8 million voted in the Socialists' 2011 primary, won by the eventual president François Hollande.
The result is a blow to Socialist Party head Olivier Faure, who has been open to alliances with Mélenchon's France Unbowed party. Faure won only 14.5% of the vote.
What comes next
Opinion polls suggest Glucksmann could reach the presidential run-off on 2 May, but would lose to far-right frontrunner Marine Le Pen.
