French Presidential Election: Five Candidates Will Take Part in Center-Left Primary

The final list of candidates for the socialist and democratic primary was confirmed on Wednesday, September 16. Five contenders were cleared to compete in the vote, which is meant to select a joint candidate backed by the Socialist Party, Place Publique, and the Republican and Socialist Left ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The five candidates cleared to run are Olivier Faure, 58, first secretary of the Socialist Party since 2018, Raphael Glucksmann, 46, co-president of Place Publique and a member of the European Parliament, Jerome Guedj, 54, a Socialist lawmaker for Essonne, Emmanuel Maurel, 53, national leader of the Republican and Socialist Left, and Segolene Royal, 72, a former minister who was herself a presidential candidate back in 2007.

Philippe Brun, a Socialist lawmaker who had also declared his candidacy, did not make the final list of five. Facing allegations of violence and suspended by his party, he was left off the official roster, a decision that strips the primary of one of its younger voices.

The vote will take place over two rounds, on October 9 and 10, followed by October 16 and 17. Voting will be conducted online, with electronic voting points also set up in every department for voters who prefer to cast their ballot in person. Whoever emerges from the process will then have to try to carry weight against the rest of the left, as a separate, further left primary brings together Greens and other movements in a distinct effort of its own.

The clarified list comes as the French left remains deeply divided over its strategy for the coming presidential race, split between a social democratic wing pinning its hopes on this Socialist primary and a more radical left pursuing its own momentum, with no agreement yet reached on a single candidate for the left as a whole.

This account draws on reporting by Franceinfo and CNews.