Three weeks away from the vote, while citizens are observing and evaluating the programs, we are witnessing yet another “common candidacy” operation.
To recap the facts, since the Socialist Party primary, Benoît Hamon has been plummeting in the polls amid betrayals. Taking the latest poll (Elabe), he has dropped from 17% the day after the primary to 10% today.
At the same time, JL Mélenchon is regaining momentum, rising in the same poll and during the same period from 10% to 15%.
Claiming that Valls’ endorsement of Macron clarifies matters, B. Hamon calls on Mélenchon and the communists to “unite” with him—in more explicit terms, to “rally behind his candidacy.” Pierre Laurent, while hoping everyone meets and discusses to find a solution, points out that the momentum is with Mélenchon.
Benoît Hamon’s proposal prompts two remarks:
-If he were at 18% and Jean-Luc Mélenchon at 7%, his approach might be credible and even have a certain legitimacy. But here he is at 10% and Jean-Luc Mélenchon at 15%!
-To circumvent the obstacle, Benoît Hamon and his team talk about the “centrality of his candidacy.” This virtual centrality reflects a persistent desire to make the Socialist Party the axis around which the rest of the left revolves. But we have just witnessed this axis shatter. Benoît Hamon’s candidacy is no longer even central within the Socialist Party and Green Party electorate. There is only an attempt to save the Socialist Party. To achieve this, Benoît Hamon hopes to secure an honorable score, while Cambadélis is already eyeing the next opportunity, potentially negotiating with Emmanuel Macron for the survival and a parliamentary role of the Socialist Party.
Ultimately, this situation illustrates the grand illusion of the Socialist Party primary. The social liberals were defeated there, but the election doesn’t hinge on that moment; it truly takes place in the first round of the presidential race. Like an athlete who ran the race of his life in qualification, Benoît Hamon completely collapses in the final.
In truth, if Benoît Hamon truly wanted to “save” the left and not just the Socialist Party, he would have had a card to play right after the primary: take a political initiative in that direction, distance himself from the Socialist Party and Cambadélis, and propose putting everything on the table—the program, but also and especially a parliamentary majority. He did not do this, opting instead to cling to the vision of the Socialist Party as a major axis of the left.
His appeal is merely an attempt to shift the responsibility for division onto Mélenchon. Ultimately, it’s an attempt to regain control of a campaign that has completely slipped away from him.
In the coming days, the “smear tactics” will be rampant in the campaign. We must not succumb to them. What is important, if we want to disrupt the narrative, is to mobilize the millions of left-wing men and women still tempted by abstention. Disappointed by backdowns and betrayals, we must make considerable efforts, multiply meetings, and engage in discussions to continue to rebuild that connection, to restore hope for “a France with a common future”…
by Robert Injey
