- The First Secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, has declared his candidacy for the left-wing primary to be held on 9, 10, 16 and 17 October.
- The MP for Seine-et-Marne becomes the fifth candidate in the running, facing Raphaël Glucksmann, Ségolène Royal, Jérôme Guedj and Philippe Brun.
- Polling at 3.5% to 5%, he rejects any backroom deal with Jean-Luc Mélenchon and intends to champion his own political line.
Official entry into the race the day after summer school
The day after his political party’s summer gathering in Blois, the First Secretary of the Socialist Party publicly declared his candidacy for the left-wing primary ahead of the next presidential election. The 58-year-old MP for Seine-et-Marne intends to champion a platform focused on social justice and the fight against the right and the far right. Olivier Faure made his entry into the presidential race official on Sunday, asserting his determination to rebuild the country after a decade marked, in his view, by immense waste.
Having led the party for eight years, the elected official is launching his first bid for the Élysée. In the previous presidential election in 2022, the social-democratic party was represented by Anne Hidalgo, who won 1.7% of the vote. Prior to this public announcement, the MP had informed the members of his parliamentary group of his intentions.
An October vote against four declared rivals
This declaration makes the Socialist leader the fifth candidate in the running for this internal vote scheduled for 9–10 and 16–17 October. He will face MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, who is polling between 10% and 15% in voting intentions, as well as MPs Jérôme Guedj and Philippe Brun, not to mention former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal. The First Secretary is pitted against Raphaël Glucksmann in a political debate focused on alliance strategy and the ideological line of the left.
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Asked about the differences between the candidates, Raphaël Glucksmann welcomed a moment of clarification regarding those he accuses of being engaged in party-machine negotiations. In response, Olivier Faure reaffirmed that he refused to confine the debate solely to internal squabbles, ruling out at the same time any possibility of an agreement or alignment with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is also a presidential candidate.
Strategic challenges and a campaign to run
Currently polling at 3.5% to 5% in voting intentions, Olivier Faure accepts his position as challenger. To put these preliminary figures into perspective, the MP points out that presidential dynamics frequently spring surprises, citing several political figures who were tipped as favourites in the past but failed to win, or conversely the example of François Hollande, who started his campaign with low scores. Faced with modest polling figures, the Socialist leader points to the historical unpredictability of major elections.
His situation is unusual, given that he himself supported Raphaël Glucksmann’s candidacy in the 2019 and 2024 European elections, and found himself in the minority within his own party last July regarding the rules of this primary. To highlight his difference, the MP points to his family background and his life journey within the middle and working-class neighbourhoods. With the vote just a month and a half away, Olivier Faure is preparing to publish a book entitled La loi du plus juste (The Law of the Fairest) and will make his first campaign trip on Tuesday, focusing on the return to school.
