Raphaël 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 Mélenchon.
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.
A profile of Raphaël Glucksmann, the man who wants to be French President
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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, François Hollande. Glucksmann, who led the mainstream left to secure 14% of French seats in the 2024 European Parliament election, opposes any alliance with Mélenchon. Opinion polls show he could make it into a May 2 run-off 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.
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"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.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)