For the first time in living memory there is no left-wing candidate challenging for the presidency.
Working in Christiane Taubira's favour has been a grassroots project called the "Popular Primary", in which at the end of next week left-wing supporters who register on a website will get to choose which candidate best expresses their vision and should therefore represent the left in April.
Add to the picture that in this popular primary there are also three other potential candidates - the totally unknown Anna Agueb-Porterie, Charlotte Marchandise and Pierre Larroutourou - and you can see why the average left-wing voter might be tempted to start tugging the rug. That's as long as there is a clear front-runner who, having qualified for the run-off, can count on the first-round votes of their erstwhile rivals, who would now be ministerial hopefuls.When Mitterrand won the presidency in 1981, he was up against five left-wing and environmentalist candidates in Round One. However, his first-round vote was 25% and his nearest rival was the Communist, Georges Marchais, on 9%, the same as the highest-ranking leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon is polling today.
Is it because of a fault-line dividing old-style one-nation Socialists from the new identity politics brigade?
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