Facing a drubbing, France’s beleaguered Socialists hold secret summit on future

Issued on: 07/04/2022 – 16:38

Analysts have said Hidalgo’s looming defeat could be the death knell for the financially-strapped Socialists (PS) in a country where rightwing parties, focusing on issues like security and spending power, have been gaining force.

The private dinner hosted by Hidalgo on Wednesday was notably attended by Francois Hollande, the former president who abandoned his chance for re-election five years ago but who still wants to shape his party’s future, Le Monde said.

They were joined by four Socialist heavyweights but not by party president Olivier Faure — reportedly no longer on speaking terms with Hidalgo.

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Also absent was Jean-Luc Melenchon, the strident far-left candidate who quit the PS in 2008 but who is leading in polls among leftists hoping to unseat Emmanuel Macron.

The fractious French left, which counts six candidates among the 12 on the ballot Sunday, is hugely divided ideologically and was unable to forge even a semblance of unity against the centrist Macron.

Hidalgo, who is on track for the worst-ever presidential score for a French Socialist at just two percent in polls, convened the dinner to ponder a new left that would include Greens as well as Communists and other far-left factions, Le Monde said.

“My job is to bring people together, to take the pulse, to listen to advice,” Hidalgo told journalists at a campaign stop in Rouen, northwest France, on Thursday when asked about the dinner. “We’re going to need to be together, there’s no place for individual adventures.”

But the so-called “Yalta” summit on a post-election reconstruction was viewed in the media as a de facto capitulation by Hidalgo, who on Thursday called to vote against far-right leader Marine Le Pen if she makes the run-off against Macron as widely predicted.

Faure, for his part, responded by tweeting a picture of him with Socialist Party activists in Morlaix, western France, captioned: “A public dinner with those fighting on to the end.”

Macron remains in the lead in polls at around 26 percent for the first round, which would set up a rematch of the 2017 contest against Le Pen.

But Le Pen has seen a last-minute surge in polls, which say she could get up to 22 percent, that could make for a close race in the April 24 second round.

If Hidalgo scores less than five percent in the first round, she will not be reimbursed by the state for her campaign spending — a huge blow for the Socialist Party after it had to raise cash by selling its historic Paris headquarters in 2018 and moving to the suburbs.

(AFP)