Centre-left chooses candidate for French presidential race

Raphaël Glucksmann has won the centre-left primary to become its candidate for France’s 2027 presidential election, taking 66% of the vote and setting up a challenge to the far right and the divided left.

The 46-year-old European Parliament member and co-leader of Place publique secured 79,613 votes, comfortably defeating Socialist Party (PS) leader Olivier Faure, who received 14.46%. Former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal came third with 7.62%.

The online ballot, organised by the PS, Place publique and the Gauche républicaine et socialiste, was disrupted by a cyberattack and extended until Sunday evening.

Mr Glucksmann must now persuade other left-wing parties to support his candidacy, having ruled out alliances with Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (LFI), including in parliamentary elections.

“This result shows that a left faithful to its values can unite, govern and win,” he said after the result.

Hours after his victory, Mr Glucksmann was targeted in Paris by a person who emptied a packet of flour over his head as he left a bar where he had been celebrating. 

The incident was filmed and circulated on social media. Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right Rassemblement National, condemned the attack, describing it as “unacceptable violence”.

What does Raphaël Glucksmann stand for?

Mr Glucksmann presents himself as a social democrat who combines European integration, environmental action and stronger public services with a firm opposition to the far right.

His emerging presidential platform includes:

• Higher wages: putting workers and purchasing power at the centre of economic policy, including a proposed increase in take-home pay.

• Taxing wealth: increasing taxation on the largest fortunes and inheritances to help fund public priorities.

• Public education: a plan to support state schools, responding to concerns over resources and educational inequality.

• Green transition: making ecological reform a central part of his programme, alongside investment in French industry and reindustrialisation.

• Europe and defence: strengthening European cooperation and defence capabilities, while supporting Ukraine against Russia.

• Democratic values: defending human rights and democratic institutions against authoritarianism and the far right.

Speaking on France Inter on Monday, he said: “We have to put workers back at the heart of the social contract, talk about wages, talk about industry.”

He also described ecological reform as a break with the previous decade, promising a “revolution” in environmental policy.

A difficult path to the presidency

Mr Glucksmann enters the race with serious challengers already present on the left and centre. 

Recent polls put far-right leader Marine Le Pen at around 34%, with former prime minister Edouard Philippe on 17.5% and Mr Mélenchon on 15.5% in one scenario. 

Mr Glucksmann was polling at 12.5% to 13.5% in September, depending on which centrist candidate was standing. The figures underline the difficulty of reaching the second round, where the two leading candidates face a run-off, particularly if the left remains divided.

Nonetheless, his international profile and pro-European positions helped establish him as a leading figure on the mainstream left. He led a joint Place publique-Socialist Party list to 13.8% in the 2024 European elections.

But his primary victory does not guarantee that the wider left will unite behind him. He has ruled out alliances with LFI, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, including in parliamentary elections. “There will be no alliance with LFI. That has been decided by more than 66% of those who took part in the primary,” he said on France Inter.

Socialist leader Olivier Faure, who came second, accepted the result, saying: “We have a candidate; now we must forge a winning spirit together.” Ségolène Royal, who finished third, said she would support Mr Glucksmann if he succeeded in uniting the left.

Mr Glucksmann has acknowledged the challenge of reconnecting with working-class voters. “The democratic left, the social-democratic left, has lost workers first and foremost,” he said, pledging to put wages and industry at the heart of his programme.

He also promised to run a campaign based on honesty, saying: “We will run a campaign without lying.”