PARIS ¨C Seven candidates will run in next month¡¯s French left-wing primaries seeking to win the nomination for next year¡¯s presidential election, the organizers said on Saturday.
With President Francois Hollande having said this month that he would not seek re-election, his former prime minister Manuel Valls is seen as the leading contender to win his party¡¯s nomination.
The primaries, organized by the Socialist Party, include four candidates from the party, two ecologists and a representative from the Radical Left Party. They will be held on Jan. 22 and Jan. 29, before presidential elections in April-May.
Valls, who announced his bid days after Hollande stepped down, is challenged by former Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg and former Education Minister Benoit Hamont, who both resigned from Hollande¡¯s government in protest over what they said was a too liberal economic policy.
Another former education minister, Vincent Peillon, will also run. Former Housing Minister Sylvia Pinel is the only female candidate.
¡°The French will be listening carefully to the debate in January,¡± Montebourg told reporters. ¡°We need the mobilization (of voters) to be as large as possible because it is the only way to unite the left.¡±
Anyone willing to pay €1 and sign a declaration that they share the values of the left can take part in the primaries.
Polls indicate that there is little chance of any Socialist candidate preventing a run-off next May between conservative Francois Fillon and the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Unlike 2012, when Hollande had managed to rally green and far-left parties behind him, the French left is highly divided after Hollande alienated his allies and many in his own party with his pro-business policy shift in midterm.
Another of Hollande¡¯s former economy ministers, Emmanuel Macron, is not taking part in the primaries and is making an independent bid.
Far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon and Green party leader Yannick Jadot are also running, drawing disgruntled voters away from the Socialist base.
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