Former Justice Minister Christiane Taubira has won France’s ‘People’s Primary’, a citizen-led electoral initiative organised by left-wing parties. However, the new format has struggled to find a candidate that the French left can unite behind. EURACTIV France reports.
Taubira was crowned the winner by the 392,000 voters – a result that was unsurprising to many. Now, she will have the ambitious task of uniting the left behind her in her bid to win the presidential elections in April 2022 and implement the primary’s organisers’ breakaway programme.
A new undertaking for France, the primary was an ambitious project. However, controversies and frustrations remain regarding the voting method and treatment of candidates, which may affect the process’s credibility.
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A novel process
The main innovation of the People’s Primary – a “citizen’s” initiative, born outside party structures – is in its voting system.
Organisers of the primary chose not to use the classic majority vote typical of French elections. Rather, they opted for the method of “majority judgment”, which consists of rating each candidate from “very good” to “insufficient”. The candidate with the best majority judgment wins.
This method influences the final result by excluding the most divisive and favouring the most consensual candidates, several studies have found.
Had the method been used during the French presidential elections of 2012, in which François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy made it to the second round, the result would have had Hollande and centrist candidate François Bayrou come out on top, instead.
Sarkozy and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who according to the traditional method both polled better than Bayrou, in this case would not even have made it to the second round.
In the recent primary, Taubira and Green candidate Yannick Jadot topped the ranking, while the more divisive radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon of La France Insoumise ranked lower.
Debate remains over whether picking the least divisive candidate could work as a recipe for success. In France, as in other countries, the power of personality and having a strong and distinctive voice can carry far in the political world.
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The candidates
The primary also suffered from controversy over its candidate choice.
Several politicians, like Jadot, Mélenchon and Socialist party candidate Anne Hidalgo, were included on the ballot against their will. Although all three had indicated their displeasure at being included in the process, organisers continued regardless.
Two candidates unknown to the general public, Charlotte Marchandise and Anna Agueb-Porterie, were also featured on the ballot – but ended up ranking last.
Moreover, some left-wing politicians were completely left out of the process. These include presidential candidates Fabien Roussel, Philippe Poutou and Nathalie Arthaud, who are running for the Communist Party, the New Anti-Capitalist Party and the Workers’ Struggle respectively.
The organisers of the ‘People’s Primary’ did not respond to requests for comment from EURACTIV France.
Not a rallying candidate
Among the six defeated candidates, only MEP Pierre Larrouturou of the Nouvelle Donne-Place Publique party and Marchandise said they would support Taubira’s campaign.
Jadot, Mélenchon and Hidalgo will continue theirs.
Agueb-Porterie, who came last in the vote, left the Popular Primary on Sunday evening (30 January), stating that “the result is divisive because it adds one more candidate”. Consequently, she has stated her intention to support Mélenchon, as she believes he is the only one with “a programme of change capable of winning”.
Given the number of excluded and “non-consenting” candidates, it is difficult to see how the left can unite, despite this having been the primary’s main goal.
Still, Taubira said she “will call the other candidates […] because each one is legitimate in his or her place […] but our fate today calls for union and gathering”.
It now remains to be seen whether the left will rally behind Taubira and whether the primary’s result will play in her favour. The new candidate in the race is currently stagnating at 4.5% in the polls, but remains ahead of her socialist rival, Hidalgo.
At this stage, it is most likely that voters will rally behind the candidate who polls best in the few weeks leading up to the election. This is the effect Mélenchon benefitted from in the previous presidential elections of 2017. Indeed, despite the number of candidates, he obtained 20% of the votes – however, not enough to secure him a spot in the second round.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
