Grandson of Soviet intelligence officer becomes presidential candidate of French left

Raphaël Glucksmann, Member of the European Parliament and founder of the Place Publique party, won the primaries in France, where left and centre-left parties determined their common candidate for the 2027 presidential elections.

According to the official results reported by Le Monde newspaper and AF agency, Glucksmann came first in the ballot box with 66.13 percent of the votes. In the primary election race, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure came in second with 14.48 percent of the votes.

Ségolène Royal, who made it to the second round of the 2007 presidential elections, finished third with 7.62 percent of the votes. More than 120 thousand voters voted in the primaries organized by the left alliance.

"I WANT TO BE THE CANDIDATE TO DEFEAT THE ULTIMATE RIGHT"

After the results were finalized, Glucksmann made a statement on the social media platform X and said, "Tonight, we won these primaries together."

Glucksmann noted that the result clearly shows that left forces that remain loyal to their own values ​​can come together.

Addressing his supporters who later gathered in the capital Paris, Glucksmann thanked the voters and stated that he was determined to be "the candidate who can defeat the far right."

This victory paved the way for Glucksmann to participate in the 2027 presidential race as the joint candidate of French socialists and their left allies.

In order for the French politician to be officially on the election ballot, he must collect the official signatures of 500 elected public officials.

Raphaël Glucksmann has been a member of the European Parliament since 2019. During this period, he was at the top of the socialists' European Parliament election lists twice.

The list led by Glucksmann ranked third in France with 13.8 percent of the votes in the European Parliament elections in 2024.

Other names that will compete in the presidential elections in France have also begun to become clear.

According to the Ouest-France newspaper, former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, Unyielding France (LFI) leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, former President François Hollande and former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced their intention to take part in the race.

Marine Le Pen, one of the prominent leaders of the French right, also announced that she will participate in the presidential race.

The country's current President, Emmanuel Macron, is serving his second term in office.

Macron, who was first elected in 2017 and will take the presidency again in 2022, will not be a candidate in the 2027 elections because French law prohibits a person from being president for more than two consecutive terms.

Macron will be able to run for president again in 2032 at the earliest.

The first round of the presidential elections will be held on April 18, 2027, and the second round will be held on May 2, 2027.

Raphaël Glucksmann, who is preparing to run for president, is the grandson of Soviet intelligence officer Rubin Glucksmann.

According to archive records previously published in the French press, grandfather Rubin Glucksmann was born in 1889 in the city of Chernovtsi, which was within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time.

Rubin Glucksmann immigrated to Palestine in the 1920s, where he joined the communist party and was later included in the ranks of the Comintern.

Glucksmann, who uses the pseudonym Reuven Gidoni; He carried out intelligence activities on behalf of the Soviet Union in many European countries, including France, Germany and England.

The fur trading company Glucksmann managed in London was used as a front for espionage activities, according to data from the British domestic intelligence service MI5.

Glucksmann, who was detained by MI5 on 17 May 1940, died in July of the same year when the Arandora Star ship, which was transporting the detainees to Canada, sank.

The ship sank as a target of a torpedo attack by a German submarine.

Rubin Glucksmann's life story was researched in detail by historians for the documentary film "Les Glucksmann, une histoire de famille" (The Glucksmanns: A Family Story), released in January 2026.

Rubin Glucksmann's son and Raphaël Glucksmann's father was the well-known French thinker and writer André Glucksmann.

Among the thinker's best-known works is the work called "The Kitchen Maid and the Man-Eater: Reflections on the State, Marxism and Concentration Camps".