Raphaël Glucksmann wins France's centre-left presidential primary with 66.1% of vote
The Place Publique leader took 66.1% in the first round on Sunday, 11 October, then faced a flour attack in Paris and the task of uniting a split left before the 2027 presidential election.
The primary result
Raphaël Glucksmann, a 46-year-old EU lawmaker who leads the Place Publique movement, won the centre-left presidential primary on Sunday, 11 October 2026, taking 66.1% of the vote in the first round. More than 120,000 people voted, far fewer than the 2.8 million who took part in the Socialists' 2011 primary, which was won by François Hollande. Socialist Party head Olivier Faure finished second with 14.5%, and Ségolène Royal won 7.6%. Faure, who had been open to alliances with Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Unbowed (LFI) party, acknowledged that Glucksmann had convinced most voters. A cyberattack forced the voting process to be extended by one day, according to a France 24 report.
Glucksmann told party activists after the vote:
We shall unite to take up the fight and prevent the Trumpists, the coup plotters, the xenophobes and the demagogues from seizing control of the Republic.
- Raphaël Glucksmann
- 66.1 %
- Olivier Faure
- 14.5 %
- Ségolène Royal
- 7.6 %
The flour attack
On Sunday evening, Glucksmann was hit with flour as he left a Paris bar where he had been celebrating his victory. The identity of the attacker is not known. Glucksmann told LCI on Monday morning that such behaviour did not impress him. In an interview on France Inter, he said LFI activists harass, insult, throw flour at or threaten people at his events and demonstrations, and he called on Mélenchon to condemn these attacks. He suggested that LFI supporters were behind the incident, but said it was difficult to establish with certainty who threw the bag. He added that such incidents recur, including during a visit to Nancy.
- Glucksmann wins the centre-left primary's first round with 66.1% of the vote
- Flour thrown at Glucksmann as he leaves a Paris bar where he had been celebrating
- Glucksmann tells Radio France the 'battle begins' to unite the left
Divisions on the left
Royal backed Glucksmann, but not wholeheartedly, and called the winner 'the intern', saying he had 'unfortunately' won the primary. Her support is conditional on him remaining on the left and forming no alliance with the centre or centre-right. Pierre Jouvet, the Socialist Party's number two, said the whole party would now work for Glucksmann's candidacy and reached out to LFI and ecologist voters. Jouvet also said Mélenchon attracts the most rejection and condemns the left to isolation and defeat. Hollande, who is touring the country with a book, is reported to be considering his own presidential run.
The campaign ahead
On Monday, 12 October, Glucksmann told Radio France that the 'battle begins', adding that he had had enough of a left that does not believe in victory. He is polling in the low teens, behind frontrunner Marine Le Pen, centre-right contender Édouard Philippe and Mélenchon. Opinion polls show he could reach the runoff on 2 May, but would lose to Le Pen there. Trouw reports that the first round is on 24 April. Le Pen has benefited from a fractured field of candidates and weaker traditional parties, while Glucksmann must now bring together a left that has been shut out of the second round since Hollande won in 2012.
