ohN THE BIRTHDAY OF Death of François Mitterrand on January 8 Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, went in the pouring rain to lay flowers on his grave. She was looking for “inspiration” from the former socialist president, but it looked more like a requiem for the party’s current candidacy. Polls show that Ms Hidalgo, the Socialist candidate, won just 4% in the first round of the French presidential election in April. Such a bad result would not only disqualify her from the second round, but fail to meet the 5% threshold for taxpayers to reimburse half of her campaign expenses.
What happened to the once powerful French left? Under the Fifth Republic, the great old Socialist Party had two presidents (Mitterrand and François Hollande) and significant social legislation, including the abolition of the death penalty in 1981 and the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2013 Ten years ago he controlled the presidency. , both houses of parliament, and most regions and large cities. In Mrs. Hidalgo, he has a mayor of international renown, congratulated for having handed over parts of the center of Paris to cyclists and joggers. The French Greens party, with which the Socialists often rule, also has a presentable candidate, Yannick Jadot. Its big issue, climate change, is constantly in the news.
However, neither Ms. Hidalgo, nor Mr. Jadot, nor any of the most left-wing candidates, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a 70-year-old left-wing torch, and a handful of other anti-capitalists and communists, currently stand a chance of reach the last lap.
The boredom for the French left is threefold. First, too many candidates fragmented the vote. None seem to have the weight or the charisma to rally the others behind a single candidate. Ms Hidalgo had supported the idea of a “citizens’ primary” as a means of achieving this. Set to take place Jan. 27-30, this is a non-binding online vote offered by 130,000 grassroots supporters as a way to measure support for different candidates, whether they like it or not. But Mr Jadot argues, rightly, that he has already won his own party’s primary and has no intention of considering the result. Mr. Mélenchon says that all this is not his problem.
Second, the dominant French left has lost the working class. Its base is now largely made up of city dwellers and public sector employees. It’s too narrow to easily win national elections. In the past, Mitterrand cleverly linked the Socialists to the French Communist Party to get the blue collar vote. Now, the largest share of this vote goes to the nationalist Marine Le Pen: 33% of blue-collar workers support her for the presidency, against 3% for Ms. Hidalgo. These voters want a tougher line on law and order. Cycling, one of Ms Hidalgo’s flagship themes, can be popular in central Paris and in green cities such as Bordeaux. Elsewhere, voters depend on their cars and don’t appreciate being blamed.
Third, France has moved to the right. Today 37% of voters say they are on the right, up four points since 2017, against 20% who say they are on the left, down five points over the same period. Former Minister of the Economy in a socialist government, Emmanuel Macron was inspired in 2017 by the moderate left to build his new centrist party when he ran for president. Many of these voters were subsequently disappointed with his tax cuts for the rich, but since the pandemic they have become less hostile, explains Chloé Morin, a former socialist adviser now at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, a think tank : “The weakness of the left means that center-left voters think they might as well vote Macron to exclude the right and the far right.
“I’m not giving up,” insists Ms. Hidalgo, who maintains that polls downplay support for the left. She accuses Macron of having destabilized the party system. But some, even within the Socialist Party, believe the solution to their problems lies in another potential candidate: Christiane Taubira, a former popular justice minister from French Guiana who is somewhat of an icon of the left. She says she will run for president if she wins the “citizens’ primary”. Unless some of the others step down, however, Ms Taubira’s candidacy will only further fragment the vote.
While candidates argue over how to run for office, they don’t tell the public what they would do if they win it. However, France must tackle major political problems. This includes knowing how to integrate minorities, reduce inequalities and protect the poor from the burdens of the green transition, at a time when public spending has reached an exceptional rate of 62% of GDP, the highest level of EU. If the left has a future in France, this year’s candidates are very successful in camouflaging it. ■
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Unfashionably Left”