Former justice minister Christiane Taubira was proclaimed on Sunday the winner of an unofficial primary of the French left, a last-ditch attempt to rally left-leaning voters behind a single candidate ahead of the April presidential election, reports Politico.
However, that outcome is unlikely as other prominent candidates featuring on the ballot said before the vote that they would go on with their own campaigns whatever the result.
They include Green MEP Yannick Jadot, who finished in second position; far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third; and Socialist mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who obtained an embarrassing fifth place — voters could choose between seven names dubbed qualified to run by the primary’s organizers.
The “People’s Primary” was organized by young grassroots activists seeking to unite the French left, pitting the major left-wing candidates against each other, mostly against their will.
Christiane Taubira was the only major candidate to willfully engage in the primary, crafting her presidential bid on a gamble that she would emerge victorious. Having announced her run only in mid-January, though, she appears to only be adding a new candidacy to a fractured left.
Mélenchon, the best placed of left-leaning candidates, is currently polling at 10 percent, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, with none of his rivals making it to double-digit scores. Taubira is currently polling at 4 percent.