2.5m vote in first Socialist election

NEARLY 2.5 million people voted in the first round of the Socialist Party primary election and put Corrèze MP François Hollande in prime position with 39% of the vote with party secretary Martine Aubry snapping at his heels on 31%.

The big surprise of the day was the success of Burgundy left-winger Arnaud Montebourg who took third place with 17%, putting him in prime position to decide who is going to win in next week’s Hollande-Aubry decider. The Saône-et-Loire MP confounded the pre-vote pollsters who had him as an also-ran.

His campaign for an end to corruption in government, to punish fat-cat bankers and to end encroaching globalisation in France with a more protectionist agenda may chime with Lille mayor Martine Aubry’s calls for a “harder left to fight a hard right”.

Aubry had pushed the tougher line to counter the softer “more presidential” campaigning style of François Hollande, who is said to be following closely the campaign strategy of the last Socialist president, François Mitterrand.

However, Montebourg has made it clear he has no time for either candidate and a supporter said “It’s like choosing between the plague and cholera!” Both Aubry and Hollande camps have been in touch to solicit his backing.

Biggest loser of the day was Ségolène Royal, the 2007 candidate against Nicolas Sarkozy and Hollande’s former partner and mother of his four children. She took only 7% and was in tears afterwards.

Elsewhere, other runners Manuel Valls and Parti Radical de Gauche president Jean-Michel Baylet could only notch up 6% and 1% of the vote. Valls has already urged his supporters to back Hollande.

Correction: We reported in error that Manuel Valls had backed Martin Aubry.

Now Hollande and Aubry will face a decisive vote on October 16.

The surprisingly large turn-out was minimised by President Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP party, with general secretary Jean-François Copé saying “only four in a hundred French people voted” and Nice MP Christian Estrosi saying that it was “a meeting of a few Socialist Party militants”.

Video uploaded by http://www.youtube.com/user/lefigaro