The French Socialist Party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election will be decided in a run-off next Sunday between former prime minister Manuel Valls and his one-time education minister Benoit Hamon, reprots Bloomberg.
In the first round of voting Sunday night, Hamon was first with 35.2 percent with Valls on 31.6 percent, with about one-third of voting stations reporting, the primary authority said. Former economy and industry minister Arnaud Montebourg, who was third with 18.7 percent, endorsed Hamon saying that the primary shows that Socialist voters want more leftist policies.
The voters “have massively and seriously condemned” the government’s policies, Montebourg said. They “want the left to return to the path of the left.”
Whoever emerges from next Sunday’s run-off faces an uphill task, with polls showing that the Socialist candidate will finish a distant fourth or fifth in the first round of the presidential election next April 23rd.
Between 1.5 million and 2 million voters cast ballots in the primary, the primary authority said