MEP Raphael Glucksmann won France’s left-wing presidential primary on Sunday, taking 66.17 percent of the vote to become the centre-left’s candidate for the April-May 2027 presidential election. Glucksmann, 46, founder of the small party Place Publique and an MEP since 2019, finished far ahead of Socialist first secretary Olivier Faure (14.5 percent) and 2007 nominee Segolene Royal (7 percent), with Emmanuel Maurel and Jerome Guedj around 6 percent each. Just over 120,000 members and sympathizers took part, and voting was extended by a day after a cyberattack hit the start of the online ballot on Friday.
Glucksmann built his campaign on pro-European and pro-Ukraine positions and a categorical refusal to ally with Jean-Luc Melenchon’s La France Insoumise. He polls around 10 percent for the first round, well short of the second-round spot widely assumed to include Marine Le Pen. He could still face a rival from the same camp if former Socialist president Francois Hollande, who declined to contest the primary, decides to run, with an announcement expected in December.