Hamon wins first round of French Socialist primary
PARIS (Reuters) – Benoit Hamon, a former Socialist education minister on the left of the party, led in the first round of a primary to pick a Socialist presidential candidate on Sunday, with more moderate ex-prime minister Manuel Valls in second place, partial results showed.
Hamon, 48, who was sacked under the government of President Francois Hollande for criticizing his economic policies, had won 35.2% of the vote and Valls about 31% with just over a third of the total votes counted.
If the final count confirms this result, the two men will go face-to-face in a January 29 runoff to decide who will be the Socialist candidate in the April-May presidential election.
The voting Sunday was set to whittle down Socialist candidates for the French presidential ticket to two from seven.
Opinion polls suggest no Socialist has much chance of winning the presidential election this spring, but they show the outcome of the beleaguered ruling party’s primary potentially determining which of the other candidates can replace Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace.
While Valls struggles to defend his government’s record, candidates to his left, such as former education minister Benoit Hamon and ex-economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, are nipping at his heels in the polls.
A runoff will then be held on January 29 to pick a candidate for the two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7.
Organizers said 400,000 people had voted by midday based on data obtained from almost two-thirds of the polling sites, compared with 744,500 at the same time in the first round of the last primary in 2011.
The Socialist party, for decades one of the main political forces in France, has become marginalized with support for Hollande evaporating as he has failed to turn the economy around and alienated left-wing voters with his economic policies.
The Socialists’ choice of presidential candidate will be key for the chances of popular independent Emmanuel Macron, who is attracting middle ground voters who Valls also appeals to.
Polls indicate conservative former prime minister Francois Fillon is most likely to emerge as the winner of the presidential election in a runoff against far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen.
Fillon’s program includes cutting business taxes, relaxing labor laws and scrapping the 35-hour work week in an attempt to boost growth, while also eliminating half a million public sector jobs as part of a drive to shrink the state sector.
But Macron, a youthful and charismatic one-time investment banker, has been gaining ground and could make it into a presidential runoff – and win – if a left-winger like Montebourg or Hamon secures the Socialist nomination, polls say.