
During the left-wing primary, the candidates debate aid to Ukraine, pension reform, the high school crisis and accusations of anti-Semitism against Jordan Bardella, while addressing their visions for France and internal tensions within the Socialist Party.
AI-generated summary
The left-wing primary pits several candidates from the PS and Place Publique against each other in a context of the rise of the RN, a budgetary crisis and social tensions around pensions and education.
On the question of Ukraine, Raphaël Glucksmann believes that “what is at stake is not just the future of Ukraine, it is the future of the whole of Europe, because we are all targeted.” Faced with the multiplication of Russian aggressions on European soil, the social democrat pleads for “that we build this European, sovereign, autonomous defense.”
Olivier Faure considers that Vladimir Putin does not wish to negotiate. “He is even strengthening his positions on the front. And we are talking about 300,000 men who would now come to conquer Donbass. And it’s also true that it weighs on the finances of France, of Europe, because, today, we are the only ones financing the Ukrainian effort,” detailed the boss of the PS.
Ségolène Royal wants to “maintain the defense of Ukraine, but at the same time make the same effort to stop this war”, pleading for “a place of diplomacy where dialogue is never interrupted” with Vladimir Putin. An “obviously laudable but a little syrupy speech,” tackled Jérôme Guedj.
Launched by a question from the boss of the CGT, Sophie Binet, the five candidates in the primary are now debating the question of pensions. Jérôme Guedj wishes to “put an end to this unjust and unequal reform of a 64-year-old applied in a completely indiscriminate manner for everyone”, defending the idea of “collective capitalization”, far from a system which would replace the “principle of distribution”.
Olivier Faure, for his part, wants an “immediate repeal of the Borne reform”, while Ségolène Royal refuses to “continue to scare retirees.” “Pensions are the assets of those who don’t have them and these are people who have contributed. And I do not want us to reduce pensions as long as we have not resolved the question of tax justice, as long as we have not brought back the solidarity tax on wealth,” thunders the former minister, urging us to “stop scaring retirees because it aggravates the economic crisis and what’s more, it’s very unfair.”
If Raphaël Glucksmann wants a pivotal age around 62, “wanting to set a universal starting age is profoundly unfair,” according to him. “Because we are not equal in the face of existence. We are not equal when it comes to work,” he recalls, calling for criteria of arduousness to be taken into account.
After the debates on strategy, it's time for the high school crisis, two days before the big day of mobilization and at the end of a week marked by violence and damage.
If Jérôme Guedj calls for listening to the “legitimate demands” of high school students, the deputy for Essonne wishes to “make the question of youth and school the priority for the next five-year term.” For this, Emmanuel Maurel wants to “repeal ParcourSup because it is a source of anxiety and for parents, and for students and for teachers, it creates a feeling of frustration and injustice.”
Olivier Faure, for his part, will be in the street on Tuesday, assured that he would have received the high school students if he had been at the Élysée. “These young people, they are not asking to break, they are asking to be able to study”, affirms the first secretary of the PS, pleading for better maintenance of order: “They are children and therefore we do not shoot at point blank range at children, period.”
Same story with Ségolène Royal, who “encourages adults of course to be alongside high school students.” “With her, there would be no social movement. It is infinitely sad to see France on the verge of financial bankruptcy and not being able to anticipate, to resolve problems before they explode,” declared the former Minister of the Environment, before adding: “When you lead a country, you have to love young people.”
While comments taken from videos broadcast by the channel “Le Média”, in which he says “piss” on Jean-Luc Mélenchon and accuses Ségolène Royal of having done “belly dancing” in front of Emmanuel Macron to obtain a position, the latter denounces “attacks with sexist and sexual connotations”. “I never asked Emmanuel Macron for a position, ever. I was even fired by Emmanuel Macron when I defended the yellow vests and when I defended the pension protesters,” replied the socialist.
Raphaël Glucksmann defended himself, saying that his remarks were in a private context. “I looked in the dictionary. It’s multiplying the gestures to obtain a position,” assures the co-founder of Place publique. While “assuming” this statement, the MEP calls for “not using” this type of language in public debate, for which he said he was “sorry” twice.
Why do primary candidates want to represent the social democratic camp? “After ten years of macronism and its illusions and in the face of the perils of the RN, I offer you a path of courage to respond to the needs for dignity expressed by the French”, regarding purchasing power, salaries and pensions, and tax justice, said Jérôme Guedj, who is opposed to “the possibility of alliance with rebellious France” promoted by Olivier Faure.
An Olivier Faure who calls for “the coming together of the left”, from environmentalists to trade unionists, against the “at the same time” Macronist “who gave the opportunity to the extreme right to present itself as the exclusive alternative.”
In a France “in a state of chaos, fracture and decline”, Ségolène Royal promotes her future presidency, that of “a sense of order and justice”. Building on her background, she wants to put her “experience at the service of my country”. To do this, the former finalist in the 2007 presidential election promises to “trigger a movement that can carry the left and then expand between the two rounds”.
Raphaël Glucksmann finds that “we all feel bad seeing the state of our country”. “When we realize to what extent the voice of France is no longer listened to, we have the impression of being faced with a country that is falling. that’s not France. We must and we will raise our heads,” said the co-founder of Place publique.
Emmanuel Maurel is running as a candidate “because he wants to serve France and the French. Our country is damaged. It is also undermined by territorial social divides between generations.” His goal? “Repair the country” and “recreate something common”.
Sunday guest of the “Grand Oral BFMTV-Le Figaro”, Dominique de Villepin rushed into the breach opened by Mediapart, which since the beginning of last week has attributed to Jordan Bardella, in a two-part investigation, anti-Semitic writings dating from 2013. Which the person concerned denies outright.
The RN may have been engaged in “normalization” and “de-demonization” work for around fifteen years, but the enterprise remains, in the eyes of Dominique de Villepin, far from being completed. “It will take many years, time and proof for this reality to become accepted by everyone,” believes the septuagenarian. Should Jordan Bardella resign, according to him, when Marine Le Pen has just renewed her “total confidence” in him?
“Personal responsibility is one thing; the problem is that of a party which inherits a tradition, it is a problem of the system, not of the person,” evades the former head of diplomacy. Before adding: “If we launch the witch hunt in the RN, we will not end it. »
Also read Bardella affair: “A system problem, not a person”, Dominique de Villepin charges the National Rally
“The worst thing is wanting to take this movement for what it is not. We must recognize that there is a problem in high schools today, in many high schools. This is more true in working-class neighborhoods. We were slow to provide good answers,” the former prime minister declared on BFMTV.
“Today, I realized to what extent there was a dignity issue. When the material conditions are not met, when teachers have been absent since the start of the year…” he added.
The Minister of the Economy, Roland Lescure, affirmed that the effort requested from companies as part of the 2027 draft budget reached around 10 billion euros, or half less than the amount put forward by Medef, in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche. “The sum put forward by Medef of 20 billion euros is inaccurate. The effort requested from companies is of the order of 10 billion, including a reduction to 5 billion euros in surtax in the context of corporate tax and a contribution for large maritime freight companies,” indicated Mr. Lescure two days after the government presented its draft budget for 2027.
The leading employers' organization, Medef estimated Thursday at "nearly 20 billion euros" the levies and taxes affecting businesses in the draft budget, judging "that further weakening businesses means weakening the country."
The French Business Movement (Medef) denounced “the multiplication of taxes” on different sectors included in the government project: on highways, sweet processed products, maritime transport, automobile insurance agreements or complementary health insurance.
Between the rooms and the technical means, the costs of organizing a meeting for this presidential election have significantly increased due to inflation, forcing candidates to adapt, or even reduce the size of this type of event. Faced with these rising prices for the entire event part, one of the most important expenditure items in the electoral campaign, certain candidates are once again calling into question the ceiling, set since 2009 at 16.851 million euros in the first round and 22.509 million in the second.
Éric Zemmour, who is preparing to embark on the race for the Élysée for the second time, has already planned to hold fewer public meetings than in 2022, he who had nevertheless been one of the only ones, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the time, to carry out impressive demonstrations of militant force. Officially, it was “very and too demanding” according to those around him, but in reality there was also a financial question, for him as for the other suitors.
INFLATION CONSTRAINTS MEETINGS
The day after Mediapart's new charge against Jordan Bardella, this close friend of Marine Le Pen, member of the campaign management, does not flinch. He feels very good. “Nothing has changed for me. I am absolutely not convinced by what Mediapart brings. Their evidence is not convincing. So, now we are campaigning and talking to the French,” he says, absolutely imperturbable. The man goes even further by saying: “Frankly, everything is fine. » And says she only thinks about one thing: the meeting on October 6, when Marine Le Pen will detail the 125 billion euros in savings she intends to make.
This is the atmosphere that reigns among the strategists of Marine Le Pen's presidential campaign, less than twenty-four hours after the last Mediapart article on the anti-Semitic remarks allegedly written, in 2013, by Jordan Bardella, then aged 17 or 18 and a simple National Front activist. In this new article, published Thursday at 6 p.m., the online newspaper presented its “evidence”. He publishes screenshots of messages allegedly sent by Jordan Bardella to another person on the Messenger platform. The interlocutor of the president of the RN asked Meta for a download of this conversation, the extraction of which was authenticated by a bailiff, according to Mediapart. And then there are the biographical elements proving according to the media that the author of the messages was indeed Jordan Bardella: a mother born in Italy, the mention of an interview he gave to Le Parisien in 2013 or even the failure in the Sciences Po competition.
FACED WITH ACCUSATIONS, THE RN STANDS UP
On the eve of the last televised debate of the primary candidates, two extracts of remarks made by Raphaël Glucksmann, intended to remain private, were broadcast by Le Media, an online support close to the radical left. The latter is alongside the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud and seems to be discussing with activists.
In a first extract, the MEP debriefs the Medef debate at the end of August, in which he participated with six other presidential candidates, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen. We hear him say that “on economic issues”, the two candidates “were mega on the hook”. “I saw Mélenchon with his eyes lost, in this debate,” he insists. “Le Pen brought back (the subject of the) veil” into the political debate. “And he (Jean-Luc Mélenchon, editor’s note), he put the abaya back on. They reacted in symmetry. We piss on them, we’re not going to get in there,” he gets angry.
In a second video, the MEP attacks his competitor in the left-wing primary, Ségolène Royal, accusing her of having done “belly dancing to Macron” in recent years while he has been “seven and a half years in the European Parliament”.
Both parties reacted strongly. Jean-Luc Mélenchon was surprised on X by this video where “R. Glucksmann claims he is “pissing on me”. Not long ago, he announced that he was going to “bend” me,” he remarks. “We see how he adopts the “method of nuance” that he recommends and the “refusal of the brutalization of the debate” that he proclaims,” he says.
For her part, Ségolène Royal deplored on
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For 52 minutes, the former head of state answers questions from Vincent Trémolet de Villers, on the new Empreintes Youtube channel. He returns to the driving forces behind his political ambition and what built him as a man. The country of his childhood? “We lived in Rouen, in my father’s medical office. The bed in which I lay in the evening was the bed on which he operated on his patients,” recalls François Hollande, before adding with amusement: “When he had time, he operated on me with my brother to f
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Jordan Bardella will have to explain more about the accusations of anti-Semitism during the next televised debate.
Likely
Candidates in the left-wing primary will continue to differ on the retirement age, preventing rapid consensus.
Likely
Olivier Faure will indeed participate in the high school demonstration next Tuesday, as he announced.
Very likely

During the televised debate of the socialist primary on October 4, 2026, the five candidates Raphaël Glucksmann, Olivier Faure, Ségolène Royal, Jérôme Guedj and Emmanuel Maurel clashed on subjects such as the controversial videos broadcast by 'Le Media', national education reforms, alliances with La France Insoumise, pension reform and the war in Ukraine, in a tense atmosphere before the first round scheduled for 9 and October 10.

Less than a week before the first round of the primary of the “socialist and democratic” left, the five candidates Olivier Faure, Raphaël Glucksmann, Ségolène Royal, Jérôme Guedj and Emmanuel Maurel took part in a third and final televised debate on BFMTV, marked by a skirmish between Olivier Faure and Raphaël Glucksmann, the two favorites, on the eve of the closing of registrations for the vote on October 9 and 10.

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During the left-wing primary, five candidates debated pensions, the high school crisis and accusations of anti-Semitic remarks targeting Jordan Bardella of the RN, relayed by Mediapart, while controversial videos by Raphaël Glucksmann were broadcast by Le Média.
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