France: Raphael Glucksmann is the Socialist candidate

Glucksmann didn’t finish his sentence, quickly slipped into the back seat of the car and sped away in order to give the cameras as little opportunity as possible to film the scene, which was unfavorable for him. When he arrived at the party headquarters, residents there sprinkled rice on him. Banners of the left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) hung in their windows.

The 46-year-old has called for an end to the “hegemony” of the LFI founder and candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon announced in the left camp. He is actually considered particularly charismatic and experienced, but is also very polarizing. Glucksmann rejects an alliance between the two left-wing currents, the social democratic, Europe-friendly line that he himself represents and Mélenchon’s more radical orientation.

At the same time, he announced the fight against the right-wing extremists as his “main opponent”. “No, Marine Le Pen will not move into the Élysée Palace in 2027,” the politician promised on Sunday evening. The elections will take place in two rounds in April and May.

The Son of the philosopher André Glucksmann has been sitting in the European Parliament since 2019, after founding his movement “Place Publique” with like-minded people in 2018. He previously worked as an essayist and documentary filmmaker and advised former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili for several years. In this way, he built up a strong foreign policy profile and called for a united, strong Europe in order to counter the autocrats of this world. However, he is less clear on domestic policy issues, from President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reform, which has been suspended, to the debt problem.

A new dynamic

For him it is now a matter of igniting a new dynamic in order to get as close as possible to Mélenchon or overtake him. Otherwise, in the winter, socialist ex-president François Hollande could also be tempted to announce his candidacy and oust him.

The right-wing extremist Le Pen is currently leading the polls with at least 35 percent. She is followed by Mélenchon with 18 to 19 percent and only behind come the candidates from the middle field, including Glucksmann. Demoscopes currently see it at ten to 14 percent.

It will not only be crucial to get the Greens on your side, who have so far seen themselves as a link between all left-wing movements. Glucksmann also hopes for the full support of the socialists, for whom he sits in the EU Parliament. He needs the party’s money to finance the election campaign. The four competitors in the primaries have assured him of their support.

But ex-presidential candidate and minister Ségolène Royal, who also ran, regretted that for the first time in the party’s history the Socialists were not fielding their own presidential candidate – but rather “the intern” Glucksmann. She had described him as such in a condescending manner to point out his lack of political experience.

Another hurdle could be that Glucksmann is seen as an overly intellectual candidate who appeals more to city dwellers than to the rural population. His partner, star journalist Léa Salamé, has withdrawn from presenting the main news on state broadcaster France 2 to avoid possible conflicts of interest. However, many people criticize the fact that a successful woman slows down her own career for the sake of her partner’s career: the signal does not fit with the progressive image that Glucksmann wants to create.