Glucksmann wins centre-left ticket for France's presidential election

Raphael Glucksmann, ‌an EU lawmaker, ​won France's centre-left's presidential primary on Sunday, positioning himself as the left's main alternative to hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. Glucksmann, 46, who leads ‌the Place Publique movement, won the primary in a first round of voting, securing an outright majority with 66% of the vote.

"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 left, the candidate ‌who can defeat our long-standing enemy – the far right," he told party activists after the vote. Glucksmann now faces the task of uniting a fractured left in a presidential campaign increasingly shaped by the far right.

More than 120,000 people ⁠turned out ​for the vote, far ⁠fewer than in the past - 2.8 million took part in the Socialists’ 2011 primary, won by the eventual president, Francois ⁠Hollande. Glucksmann, who led the mainstream left to secure 14% of French seats in the 2024 European Parliament ​election, opposes any alliance with Melenchon. Opinion polls show he could make it into a May ⁠2 runoff vote in the presidential election, but would lose to frontrunner Marine Le Pen from the far right.

Glucksmann's ⁠victory ​in the primary vote is a blow for Socialist Party head Olivier Faure, who has been open to alliances with Melenchon's France Unbowed party and won only 14.5% of the vote. "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," Glucksman said.

While critical of some of President Emmanuel Macron's pro-business policies, Glucksmann has advocated a similar pro-European, pro-Ukraine line, positioning ‌himself as ‌a staunch defender of liberal democracy.