2027 presidential election: the Socialist Party, Place publique and the GRS organize a primary

The Socialist Party, Place publique and the Republican and Socialist Left have agreed to organize a primary. This, organized on the weekends of October 9-10 and 16-17, 2026, should make it possible to nominate a common candidate to represent the social-democratic pole, which aims to be a non-Melenchonist left, in the 2027 presidential election. Members of the parties concerned, but also anyone paying 15 euros, will be able to freely vote. The winner will aim to do better than in 2022, when the PS candidate, Anne Hidalgo, achieved the worst score in the history of the party, with 1.7% of the vote.

Six candidates were initially due to compete in the primary, before MP Philippe Brun was suspended from the PS “due to accusations of violence”. Le Figaro takes stock of the participants.

Olivier Faure

The first secretary of the Socialist Party has long left doubts about his participation in this primary, he who had not taken part in that of 2021 (Anne Hidalgo had been designated candidate of the PS, beating Stéphane Le Foll). But Olivier Faure declared himself a candidate on Sunday August 30 on the TF1 news, assuring that he wanted to “carry a fairer France” and promised to “rebuild everything” and “repair everything”, after 10 years of a “huge waste”. This is the first time that the deputy for Seine-et-Marne, 58, is running for the Élysée. He will soon publish a book entitled The Law of the Fairest.

Raphaël Glucksmann

Long uncertain, the participation of the founder of Place publique in this primary was officially announced on August 23. “I am a candidate to take over France because you know, we all have a knot in our stomach when we look at what our nation is becoming and what it could become in the coming months,” declared the 46-year-old MEP at the time. He has since obtained the support of several left-wing heavyweights, such as the former environmentalist candidate Yannick Jadot, the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga, and the leader of the PS deputies in the National Assembly, Boris Vallaud.

Ségolène Royal

The finalist in the 2007 presidential election, 73 years old, wants to share her experience to weigh in on the debate. “The current issues are topics on which I have worked a lot,” she recalled at the PS summer universities in Blois, at the end of August, where she defended her candidacy. “I have been a minister several times, I have been a parliamentarian four times and I have been regional president, so I know both the local, the global, the state apparatus and today, an essential challenge is the reconstruction of the solidity of the State.”

Jérôme Guedj

The PS deputy for Essonne, 54, came out of the woods in February, claiming to want to represent a “republican”, “universalist” and “secular” left, breaking with Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France insoumise. “This primary must not be the return match of the Socialist Party congress,” he wrote Monday August 31 on his X account. “The games of apparatus and the quarrels of people are not up to the challenge. I want to bring together a “dream team” of the Republican left in all its diversity. And I am addressing this silent left which no longer recognizes itself in these games of apparatus: come, participate, decide.”

Emmanuel Maurel

The 53-year-old deputy from Val-d'Oise, former member of the PS (which he left in 2018), will represent his small Republican and Socialist Left (GRS) party in the primary. He currently sits on the finance committee of the National Assembly. During his ten years as an MEP, he worked on international trade and notably opposed several free trade agreements, while defending economic protectionism and industrial relocations. Emmanuel Maurel seeks to stand out by emphasizing economic sovereignty, reindustrialization, public services and criticism of free trade. He summarizes his line with three verbs: “Deglobalize, decommodify, democratize.”

Philippe Brun suspended by the PS

The 34-year-old deputy for Eure, Philippe Brun, who planned to participate in the primary, was suspended by the PS “due to accusations of violence”, announced Wednesday Patrick Menucci, president of the primary commission of the socialist and democratic left. He did not specify the type, but indicated that “the sexual word was not pronounced”.

They do not wish to participate

Karim Bouamrane, PS mayor of Saint-Ouen, confirmed on August 26 on TF1 that he would not go through the primary box, but that he remained “more than ever” a presidential candidate. He justified his refusal to participate by the fact that the primary was “closed” by being reserved only for PS and Public Place activists “unless you join at 12:59 a.m.” by paying 15 euros. With this price, “we are not going to reach two million participants like in 2011,” he warns.

François Hollande repeated at the PS summer universities in Blois his refusal to participate in the primary, assuring that a “moment of truth” will take place in December and that it will then be a question of creating a “sacred union of democrats” going “beyond political groups”. The former President of the Republic is, for the moment, not a candidate.