Ex-PM Valls fights leftist outsider for presidential nod

Hamon in driving seat for nomination but polls suggest Socialists are off pace

Leftist outsider Benoit Hamon will fight ex-prime minister Manuel Valls for the French Socialist presidential nomination next Sunday after winning the first round of a primary seen as a battle for the party's soul.

Dismissed as a serious contender when the campaign began in December, the 49-year-old former education minister placed himself in the driving seat with what he called a "message of hope and renewal".

With Europe apparently shifting rightward and the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande ruling himself out, the Socialist primary has been billed as a fight - a left-leaning faction represented by Hamon versus Valls' centrist, pro-business camp.

The leftist Liberation daily on Monday billed the second round as a battle between "a left that takes charge versus a left that dreams."

Hamon scored 36.3 percent with Valls trailing on 31.1 percent, according to results published late on Sunday.

Between 1.6 million and 1.7 million voted, the head of the primary organizing committee, Christophe Borgel, told RTL radio - less than half the four million who took part in the first round of the right-wing primary.

Maverick former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg was eliminated with 17 percent and immediately threw his support behind Hamon.

But whoever wins the Socialist nomination faces long odds.

Polls show the presidential election coming down to a contest between conservative ex-premier Francois Fillon, far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, the 39-year-old former economy minister.

A defiant Valls, 54, told his supporters the Socialist primary runoff would be "a clear choice between unachievable promises and a credible left".

Choosing Hamon, he said, would mean "certain defeat" in the presidential election whereas he offered a "possible victory".

But with right-wing ideas apparently taking root across Europe, most opinion polls show a Fillon-Le Pen presidential showdown as the most likely scenario in May.

Spanish-born Valls appears to have been punished for his association with Hollande, struggling at times in a contest he had been expected to dominate.

He set out to modernize his party but has struggled to unite his camp, with rivals accusing him of betraying leftist ideals by forcing through labor market reforms.

Some Socialist heavyweights have hinted they could abandon their party's nominee and back Macron instead if he looks to have a better chance of reaching the second round of the presidential election against Le Pen.

Macron himself has ruled out a pact with the Socialists, promising that his En Marche (On the Move) party will field hundreds of candidates in parliamentary elections in June.

Communist-backed firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, who like Macron is standing as an independent, also threatens to split the left-wing vote.

The influence of Le Pen, who leads the anti-immigration National Front, has overshadowed the entire presidential campaign so far.

She told a meeting of right-wing populist parties in Germany on Saturday that Europe was about to "wake up" following the victory of Donald Trump in the US election and the British vote to leave the European Union.

(China Daily 01/24/2017 page11)