SAINT-CLOUD, France (Reuters) — Candidates fighting for the Socialist party nomination for French president said during a televised debate on Thursday (January 19) before presidential primaries at the weekend that the left could unite despite being squeezed by competition on all sides.
The French left will start to pick which of the seven eligible candidates will represent it at presidential elections in the spring during a two-round contest which begins on Sunday (January 22).
But the far left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon and independent candidate and former minister Emmanuel Macron are notable absentees from the ballot paper and the debate. Both have decided to bypass the primaries and run anyway and are credited by pollsters with sizeable scores which could eat into the Socialists’ core vote.
An Elabe poll carried out for BFMTV immediately after the debate showed that 29 percent of people found ex-education minister Benoit Hamon the “most convincing” candidate, followed by former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg (28 percent) and their ex-boss onetime prime minister Manuel Valls (21 percent).
Hamon has made headlines with eye-catching proposals including a plan to introduce a universal basic income and at the debate he sought to position himself as the candidate best placed to bring France’s different left wing factions together.
“We need a man or a woman who can bring the left together. My project, with the solutions it develops, with the modernity of its answers, can bring the left together,” he said.
The candidates could not escape the spectre of Macron hanging over the discussions and faced with questioning by the moderating journalists, they said the victor of the primary would have more democratic legitimacy than Macron who had decided to run on his own.
“There are political forces, forces in the press, which want to stop the primary from taking place in the right way, that’s what we’ve been sensing for days, for weeks, but the people of France — and they’ve already shown this during the right wing primary — will not have have any option imposed upon them,” Valls said, referring to a surprise victory for Francois Fillon in the right’s primary held in November.
Another candidate, Vincent Peillon, described Macron as a “prodigal son” who would soon return to the Socialist family fold.
The best-placed candidates on Sunday will progress to a head-to-head on January 29 which will decide who represents the Socialists in the election.
But polls suggest whoever it is will make a poor showing in the presidential vote in April and May, likely knocked out by the conservatives’ Fillon and the far right’s Marine Le Pen.
The candidates were also asked about international affairs, giving Valls the chance to return to comments he made accusing U.S. President Elect Donald Trump of declaring “war” on Europe.
“That’s what his project is: break up, pull Europe apart by praising Brexit, wanting most probably to pull out of the Atlantic Alliance, we’ll see under what conditions, well then we should take his words seriously,” he said.