Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

French left tries ‘people’s primary’ to pick presidential candidate

A four-day "people's primary", to pick a left-wing candidate for the French presidency from a divided and squabbling field, ends Sunday with doubts remaining that a unifying figure on the left will emerge.

Published: 30 January 2022 16:00 CET
A sticker of French left-wing candidate to the
A sticker of French left-wing candidate to the "people's primary" presidential contest Christiane Taubira is worn on the coat of a supporter as she visits the vineyard of Chateau la Tuilere in Saint-Ciers-de-Canesse, near Bordeaux on January 28, 2022, while campaigning ahead of the April 2022 presidential election. - Multiple left-wing presidential candidates are set to be judged in the "people's primary" contest designed to reduce left-wing presidential candidates. A total of 467 000 people have signed up to take part in the online vote which will see seven designated candidates, five professional politicians and two civil society, ranked on a scale from "very good" to "inadequate". But three major candidates already planed to ignore the result. (Photo by Philippe LOPEZ / AFP)

A total of 467,000 people have signed up to take part in the online vote, which started on Thursday. They have to rank five professional politicians and two civil society candidates on a scale from “very good” to “inadequate”.

Whoever wins the best grades average would be expected to rally all the other candidates and their voters behind them, giving the left a fighting change to unseat President Emmanuel Macron in the April election.

But the exercise, initiated by political activists including environmentalists, feminists and anti-racism groups, has been dogged by
serious drawbacks.

The biggest is the upfront refusal by leading candidates Jean-Luc Melenchon, a hard-left politician, Yannick Jadot, a Green, and Socialist Anne Hidalgo to pay any attention to its result.

“As far as I’m concerned, the popular primary is a non-starter and has been for a while,” Jadot said Saturday, while Melenchon has called the initiative “obscure” and “a farce”.

The best-placed politician to win the grassroots endorsement is former Socialist justice minister Christiane Taubira, who has said she would accept the primary’s verdict.

A win Sunday for the well-liked Taubira could prompt her to declare a formal bid for the presidency.
 
But analysts would not rule out that  Melenchon, Jadot or Hidalgo could still emerge as the winner despite their rejection of the primary, which could lead to more confusion.
 
Polls currently predict that all left-wing candidates will be eliminated in the first round of presidential voting in April.
 
Macron, who has yet to declare his candidacy for re-election, is the favourite to win according to surveys, with the far-right’s Marine Le Pen the likely runner-up.
 
But pollsters warn that the political landscape remains volatile, with the vote’s outcome very difficult to call.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

Published: 16 June 2024 08:44 CEST
New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

SHOW COMMENTS