Tension During Wait for French PS Election Results

by Mirandacbf    November 21, 2008

The French left wing party PS (parti socialiste), is the leading opposition party in France. They have been facing unity problems, with many of its leading figures disagreeing on major questions. This has made the elaboration of a political programme difficult. Bringing unity to the PS will be the future leader's mission.

The vote for a new leader, called First Secretary, took place yesterday. The major candidates were : Ségolène Royal, the former presidential candidate, Martine Aubry, the mayor of Lille, Bertrand Delanoë, mayor of Paris and Benoît Hamon, European deputy and spokesman for the PS. In the evening, it was revealed that Ségolène Royal and Martine Aubry were to go on the second round of the election, with respectively 43,1% and 34,5%. Benoît Hamon received 22,8% of the votes.

Bertrand Delanoë had left the race for leadership a few days before the Thursday election. Hamon offered his support to Martine Aubry by encouraging voters to choose her in the second round, as Delanoë has done ever since his withdrawal from the campaign.

The outcome of this election is of great importance for the party. Not only will unity be sought, but the party's political position will no doubt be redefined. The party needs to offer a strong and unified image to the country before the next presidential election in 2012, when they hope to dethrone the current president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Delanoë has made clear in the past that he plans to particpate in that election, as have other members of the PS. The results of the PS leader election are expected late this evening.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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