Socialist Party

As far-right National Front party surges in polls for December local elections, French politics are relentlessly driven from the Right, argues NYT.

The ruling Socialist Party is continuing its inexorable drift towards the centre ground of French politics. As Stéphane Alliès reports, prime minister Manuel Valls's key-note speech on Sunday to end its summer conference underlined the extent to which the party has turned its back on other parties of the Left and has instead become a “rallying call for progressives”.

Departure of EELV's Senate leader Jean-Vincent Placé follows decision by a senior MP to quit the environmental party.

A broad-brush policy statement put forward by Hollande loyalists ahead of party's annual congress has won more than 60 percent of the vote.

French voters have inflicted a major defeat on the ruling Socialist Party and its allies in Sunday's local elections. The Left lost control of 25 of the départements or counties that it held before the election, leaving it in the majority in just 34. In contrast, the alliance between the right-wing UMP - headed by Nicolas Sarkozy - and the centrists UDI is now in control of  66 département councils in a dramatic shift of power in French local politics. The far-right Front National, meanwhile, failed in its bid to win control in a council for the first time in its history though it did see around 60 councillors elected. The outcome is widely seen as a major slap in the face delivered by voters to President François Hollande's government. The Right won power both in the president's political stronghold and that of the prime minister Manuel Valls. Conceding the serious setback for the socialists, Valls also highlighted the performance of Marine Le Pen's party as a “defeat for all Republicans”. But he has vowed to stay on as head of government and - to the dismay of some on the Left - made clear that its current policies would continue.

The first round of voting in France's 'départementales' or county elections on Sunday threw up some important results. While it did not do as well as opinion polls had predicted, failing to become France's 'leading party', the far-right National Front still picked up around 25% of the vote. Meanwhile the ruling Socialist Party only attracted just over 21% support in an election in which it has traditionally performed well. A third noteworthy outcome was the victory of the alliance between the centre-right UDI and the right-wing UMP, led by Nicolas Sarkozy. Here Mediapart journalists examine the political situation ahead of next Sunday's second and decisive round. First Stéphane Alliès argues that leaders of the Socialist Party, and in particular the prime minister Manuel Valls, are deluding themselves in thinking that the party “held up” well in the vote. Then Ellen Salvi analyses the performance of the centre-right, where the victory of the UDI-UMP alliance has rather overshadowed any success on the part of former president Sarkozy.

Victory in the Doubs by-election on French-Swiss border would be first parliamentary win for socialist government since it came to power in 2012.

For the last three years France's upper chamber of parliament, the Senate, has been under the political control of the Left, a rarity in the history of the Fifth Republic. On Sunday that brief interlude ended when, as expected, the Right regained control of the chamber during partial elections, with the centre-right faring especially well. And for the first time the far-right Front National gained entry to the Senate, picking up two seats. Meanwhile the ruling Socialist Party took comfort from the fact that a number of its candidates fared better than expected, though there were some symbolic defeats for key allies of President François Hollande. Mathieu Magnaudeix analyses the significance of the weekend's elections.

Thomas Thévenoud, who quit government after not filling in tax declarations, will stay as an MP - but not as a member of Socialist Party.

Manuel Valls was met by a booing crowd when he arrived in La Rochelle for his party's annual national meeting of militants and officials.

The results in France of the European Parliament elections held on May 25th saw a landslide victory for the far-right Front National party, amid the disintegration of the Left and the collapse of the mainstream Right, choked by scandals and internal divisions. The worst-case scenario for French democracy is now an imminent possibility, writes Mediapart’s editor François Bonnet who argues here why, unless there is a major change to political dynamics, the far-right now has a real chance of taking the French presidency.