First public meeting of Ségolène Royal's campaign in the socialist primary

Not a single candle burns on the horizon. Not even a cake, let alone party favors. From time to time we can just hear a foghorn at the back of the room. A few “Happy Birthday!” erupt timidly, but remain a dead letter. This is because we are not at the birthday party of Ségolène Royal, born on September 22, 1953, 73 years ago to the day, but at the first public meeting of her campaign in the socialist primary in October.

In a large gymnasium in Alfortville, in Val-de-Marne, some 200 to 300 people came to listen to the former socialist minister, who intends to win the presidential election twenty years after her failure in the second round against Nicolas Sarkozy. It is at this level, totally unexpected at this stage, that the person concerned places her ambitions. “We believe that Ségolène Royal can become the first woman president of the Republic,” defended her campaign director, Luc Carvounas, also mayor of the host city, on stage.

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The boss of the Ecologists and presidential candidate Marine Tondelier gave birth on September 18 to her second child, a little boy named Léon, she announced to AFP on Wednesday. The first contender for the Élysée to have been pregnant, she specified that the birth had gone “very well”, and that she would for a certain time “try to invent how to reconcile a presidential campaign and a newborn, whose health and well-being come first”.

When she announced her pregnancy at the end of March, she recounted her difficulties after a miscarriage and an unsuccessful PMA and IVF course. It was finally after putting her plans for a child on hold that she became pregnant.

Pulling the rug out from under Édouard Philippe. This was the objective that the LR presidential candidate, Bruno Retailleau, set for himself Tuesday evening on LCI, to try to catch up in the polls against his competitor Horizons, who is slow to come out of the woods on his pension reform. A clarification all the more delayed because, if the mayor of Le Havre wanted to remove the plaster from the 67 years that his adversaries want to stick to his skin, the program “The Hour of Truth” where he was to bring it next Thursday was postponed to October 8 due to a presidential interview.

Enough to constitute a window of opportunity for the boss of the Republicans, who saw it as a boon to relaunch himself. Because since the suspension of the Borne reform in the 2026 budget, the fate of which was referred to the presidential election, the question of pensions promises to liven up the campaign. With the ambition of “saving the pension system for retirees”, not only so that they are not “impoverished today and tomorrow”, but also for the “young generations”, the Vendée senator wants to combine “freedom” and “responsibility”. And this, around two ages.

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After the invectives through the media and the Philippe Brun affair, and before the vote of the activists, let's get to the bottom of it: the primary of the social-democratic space really begins on Wednesday with the first televised debate bringing together the five candidates.

At 8:40 p.m. on LCI, “Olivier Faure, Jérôme Guedj, Emmanuel Maurel, Raphaël Glucksmann and Ségolène Royal, candidates for the Left Primary will participate in a program in the “Face aux Français” format,” indicated the PS in a press release. “On the stage, around ten French people will be present to question the candidates on international issues and national challenges relating to ecological transition, public debt or purchasing power” continues the party.

The start of the primary was marked by the surprise sidelining of the socialist deputy Philippe Brun, who had obtained his sponsorship, for accusations of violence against a former collaborator. The elected official from Eure, also suspended as a precautionary measure, requested to be reinstated in the primary and took legal action to this effect. He filed a summary judgment against the PS, the decision of which should be rendered in the morning.

Also read Primary of the left: a first televised confrontation under high tension

Welcome to this live broadcast devoted to political news and the campaign for the 2027 presidential election. We are seven months from the first round, which will take place on April 18.

At the start of the week, the news is marked by the surge in fuel prices, but also by the primary of the social-democrat camp. The first televised debate bringing together the five candidates must take place this Wednesday evening, at 9 p.m., on LCI.