Politics
• Analysis
Socialist Party setback in French left-wing primary as Olivier Faure's candidate takes 14.5%
The French left-wing primary delivered a blow to Socialist Party head Olivier Faure on Sunday: his candidate, open to alliances with Mélenchon's France Unbowed, won only 14.5% of the vote while Raphaël Glucksmann took 66.13% and the 2027 ticket.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 11, 2026
• 2 Min Read
A defeat for Faure's alliance strategy
Sunday's french left-wing primary was judged, above all, by what it meant for Olivier Faure. The Socialist Party leader, who has been open to alliances with Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Unbowed party, saw his candidate take just 14.5% of the vote. Across the same first round, Raphaël Glucksmann secured an outright majority with 66.13%.
The gap left the Socialists' line of cooperation with the hard left weakened, while Glucksmann - who rejects any alliance with Mélenchon - emerged as the centre-left's standard-bearer for the 2027 presidential election.
Who won, and what he stands for
Glucksmann, 46, is a member of the European Parliament who leads the Place Publique movement. In the 2024 European election he took the mainstream left to 14% of French seats, and he has ruled out any partnership with Mélenchon.
His positioning sets him apart from both camps:
- •Pro-European and pro-Ukraine in outlook
- •Critical of some of Emmanuel Macron's pro-business policies, yet a self-described defender of liberal democracy
- •Firmly opposed to an alliance with Mélenchon's France Unbowed
What Glucksmann told activists
Speaking to activists after the vote, Glucksmann presented himself as a candidate of rupture on two fronts - against the sitting president and against the hard left's dominance.
"I am the candidate who stands for a break with Macronism, the candidate who stands for a break with Jean-Luc Melenchon's hegemony over the French"
He also called on the left to close ranks, saying: "We shall unite to take up the fight and prevent the Trumpists, the coup plotters, the xenophobes and the demagogues from seizing control of the" Republic.
The road to 2027
Glucksmann now carries the centre-left ticket into the 2027 presidential election, where he faces the task of uniting a fractured left in a campaign increasingly shaped by the far right. Opinion polls show he could make it into a May 2 run-off vote, but would lose to frontrunner Marine Le Pen.
