Disillusionment among French progressives could open the door to a Marine Le Pen presidency

It was less than 10 years ago that France last elected a Socialist party president, but it now seems like another age. The unpopular reign of François Hollande, who stood down after one term, was the precursor to an electoral implosion for the party of Jean Jaurès and François Mitterrand. In 2017, as Emmanuel Macron successfully redrew the political map from the centre, the Socialist presidential candidate received a humiliating 6% of the first-round vote. In the subsequent general election, the party’s presence in the National Assembly was reduced to a miserable rump of 30 MPs.

“Things can only get better”, to use a phrase from happier times on the European left. But for French progressives, the danger is that they get even worse. A year out from the next presidential election, every opinion poll points towards another second-round duel between President Macron and Marine Le Pen. Accordingly, last weekend, the fractious forces of the left met to try to agree on a united front. But after inconclusive talks it seems likely that the progressive vote will be split between at least two presidential candidates: Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the radical left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), and whoever the Socialist party and the French Greens put forward. A first-round defeat for all concerned would be virtually guaranteed.

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Source: The Guardian