Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Socialist Party (France)

  • Republican, Socialist Incumbents Win French Runoffs

    Mabilay Rennes France
    Le Mabilay in Rennes, France, February 21, 2019 (Unsplash/Howard Bouchevereau)

    France’s traditional major parties are projected to defend their control of the country’s thirteen regions in Europe in the second voting round on Sunday.

    Last week, the center-left Socialists and center-right Republicans placed first in all regions, pushing Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and President Emmanuel Macron’s liberal En Marche! into third and fourth place.

    The runoffs this weekend confirmed the results with exit polls giving the Republicans 38 percent support nationally, followed by the Socialists and Greens (who allied in the second round) at 35 percent and National Rally on 20 percent.

    Elections were also held in France’s five overseas regions. (more…)

  • Republicans, Socialists Defend Control of French Regions

    La Rochelle France
    Harbor of La Rochelle, France, June 23, 2020 (Unsplash/Simon Pallard)
    • France’s traditional left- and right-wing parties won the first round of regional elections on Sunday.
    • They were eclipsed in the 2017 national and 2019 European elections by Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche! and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
    • Neither Macron nor Le Pen is likely to win one of France’s eighteen regional presidencies, but they are still polling in first and second place for the 2022 presidential election.
    • The second round of the regional elections will be held next week. (more…)

  • France’s Old Parties Suffer Another Blow in European Election

    Paris France
    Skyline of Paris, France at night, February 9 (Unsplash/Sabina Fratila)

    France’s once-dominant center-left and center-right parties still haven’t recovered from their defeat two years ago at the hands of Emmanuel Macron.

    The Socialists got only 6 percent support in European elections on Sunday, the same share as the far left. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s Republicans got 8.5 percent, down from 21 percent five years ago.

    Most of the media attention has gone to the winners: Macron’s liberal-centrist alliance, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and the Greens, who got almost 60 percent support combined. But the collapse of the old parties — and with it an era in French politics — is just as big a story. (more…)

  • France’s Traditional Parties Still Haven’t Recovered from Macron

    French parliament Paris
    Night falls on the Bourbon Palace, seat of the French National Assembly, in Paris, June 8, 2007 (J.R. Rosenberg)

    Two years into Emmanuel Macron’s presidency, France’s old political parties still haven’t recovered.

    The Socialists, the party of Jacques Delors and François Mitterrand, are polling at a measly 6 percent for the European elections in May. The Republicans, who trace their political roots to Charles de Gaulle, are at 12 percent. Macron’s En Marche! (Forward!) and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally split 40 percent of the vote. The remainder goes to splinter parties on the left and right. (more…)

  • French Parties Must Figure Out How to Survive in Era of Macron

    Emmanuel Macron
    Emmanuel Macron arrives at the Elysée Palace in Paris for his inauguration as president of France, May 14, 2017 (Elysée/Nathalie Bauer)

    Emmanuel Macron has redrawn the political map of France.

    There used to be two major parties, one of the center-left (Socialists) and one of the center-right (Republicans), with smaller parties on the far left and far right. Macron’s centrist project, La République En Marche!, has thrown them all in disarray.

    • France Unbowed is a new far-left party cobbled together by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a former communist. Although an improvement over the once hopelessly divided politics of the far left, it doesn’t get more than 20 percent support.
    • For the Socialists, there isn’t much room between France Unbowed on the left and Macron in the center. Their support is in the single digits.
    • The Republicans are similarly caught between Macron on the one hand and the National Front on the other, but at least they still have a substantial base of around 20 percent.
    • The National Front probably hit its ceiling in the 2017 presidential election, when Marine Le Pen got 34 percent support in the second voting round against Macron. (more…)

  • After Presidential Defeat, French Parties Divided

    Neither of France’s two major political parties was able to get their candidate into the second voting round of the presidential election last week. That failure, without precedent in the history of the Fifth Republic, has plunged them both into a deep crisis.

    The situation is worst in the Socialist Party, which has lost the presidency and is almost certain to lose its majority in the National Assembly next month.

    The party’s failed candidate, Benoît Hamon, has announced the start of a new left-wing “movement” despite winning just over 6 percent support in the first presidential voting round.

    Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who placed fourth with 20 percent support, has called on Hamon to join him.

    The two leftists failed to do a deal during the presidential contest. Two things have changed: Hamon may no longer feel he owes loyalty to a party that failed to unite behind him and Mélenchon has lost the backing of the French Communist Party. It is fielding candidates against his La France insoumise in the legislative elections in June, splitting the far-left vote. (more…)

  • Certain to Lose Power, France’s Socialists Argue Among Themselves

    Former prime minister Manuel Valls’ endorsement of Emmanuel Macron has widened a split in France’s ruling Socialist Party.

    Benoît Hamon, the left’s presidential candidate, has taken Valls to task for going back on his word.

    During the Socialist primary, Valls vowed to support his party’s nominee. Now that he has lost the contest, he wants leftwingers to support Macron instead in order to stop Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front. (more…)

  • French Socialists Nominate Far-Left Hamon for Presidency

    • French Socialists nominated Benoît Hamon, a former education minister, as their presidential candidate on Sunday.
    • Hamon got 58 percent support in a second voting round against 41 percent for his opponent, the former prime minister Manuel Valls.
    • Hamon is to the left of the party. His policies include the legalization of marijuana and the introduction of a universal basic income. (more…)

  • Hamon, Valls Push Montebourg Out of French Presidential Contest

    • Former education minister Benoît Hamon and former prime minister Manuel Valls have won the first voting round in the French Socialist Party’s presidential primary.
    • Arnaud Montebourg, a former industry minister, finished third. He has endorsed his fellow leftist Hamon.
    • Polls suggest Valls, a social democrat, would be more competitive in a general election. (more…)

  • Valls Jeopardizes His Credibility as a Reformer by Tilting to the Left

    With two weeks to go until the French Socialists elect their presidential candidate, Manuel Valls is not so subtly tilting to the left.

    The former prime minister, who made a name for himself as a reformer, now says neither the 35-hour workweek nor France’s high wealth taxes need to be reformed after all.

    Valls’ concessions to the left make short-term political sense. Benoît Hamon and Arnaud Montebourg, two far-left firebrands, are up in the polls. Valls is still the favorite to win the nomination, but only narrowly. Recent surveys suggest he could struggle in a second voting round against either of his opponents.

    But he takes a longer-term risk.

    Valls’ electability in a general election would hinge on his credibility as a social democrat. If he veers too far to the left, true believers may decide there is no point in supporting him anymore over Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the otherwise hopeless far-left candidate, while more moderate center-left voters could defect to Emmanuel Macron, the former economy minister under Valls who is running as an independent. (more…)

  • French Socialists Could Make Same Mistake as Britain’s

    Surveys suggest the French Socialists could make the same mistake as the British Labour Party and lurch to the left next year, taking themselves out of contention for the presidential and parliamentary elections that due in April and May.

    Arnaud Montebourg, a fierce anticapitalist and former economy minister, is neck and neck with Prime Minister Manuel Valls, the center-left candidate, in the polls.

    Ifop and Harris Interactive both give Valls 51 percent support in a hypothetical runoff against 49 percent for Montebourg.

    Two Ipsos surveys conducted earlier this year put Montebourg ahead.

    There is little doubt these two men will prevail in the first voting round. (more…)

  • After Hollande Steps Aside, Valls Is the Only Serious Candidate

    François Hollande bowed to reality on Thursday, when the Socialist Party leader announced he would not seek a second term as president of France.

    No leader in the history of the Fifth Republic has been less popular than Hollande, whose approval rating hit a 4-percent low in one survey last month.

    Hollande squandered what little goodwill he had left when Un président ne devrait pas dire ça… (“A President Should Not Say That…”) appeared last month: a tell-all book in which the outgoing president is quoted disparaging other Socialist Party bigwigs, including his prime minister, Manuel Valls, and foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault.

    Both were reportedly outraged by the publication, which dumbfounded the entire French political class. It will only help cement Hollande’s legacy as an inapt and feckless president, who failed to balance competing interest in the ruling Socialist Party and was unable to revitalize the French economy.

    Unemployment, at 10 percent, is at the same level as when Hollande took office in 2012. Growth has been lackluster ever since. (more…)

  • Hollande Torpedoes Candidacy, Socialists Seek Replacement

    French president François Hollande has exhausted what little goodwill he had left in his party by airing his views of other top officials.

    There was never any doubt that Hollande — the least popular president in French postwar history — would lose his reelection bid next year. But the Socialist Party was willing to follow him into defeat, owing to the absence of an uncontroversial successor and a political culture of deference.

    That has changed since the release of Un président ne devrait pas dire ça… (“A President Should Not Say That…”) earlier this month. (more…)