The socialists appeal to the useful vote to avoid their debacle in France

Less than a month before the first round of the presidential elections in France, the socialist candidate Anna Hidalgo criticized the idea that the “useful vote” of the left in the next elections is for the candidate of La Francia Insumisa, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, third in voting intention polls.

Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, considers that she is the one who best defends the ideas of “the European and republican left.” “The useful vote is the vote that takes into account our deep convictions,” said the Franco-Spanish politician in statements to the BFMTV television network.

The socialist candidate, sunk in the polls, criticized the program of the leader of La Francia Insumisa. «Can you imagine the future of France with Jean-Luc Mélenchon? Do you want to get out of Europe and get out of NATO? Vote for Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Do you want Europe and that democratic project that I defend within Europe? Vote for Anne Hidalgo,” said the mayor, born in San Fernando (Cádiz), the daughter of Spaniards and nationalized French at the age of 14.

On the other hand, the former socialist candidate Ségolène Royal considers that it would be useful to vote for Mélenchon on April 10 in the first round, given the debacle of the left, too divided with six candidates of this ideology of the twelve that are running for the presidential elections. .

This opinion is not shared, however, by former socialist president François Hollande. “It would not be useful to have a president who would come out of the Atlantic Alliance, it would not be useful to have a president who would put Russia and democratic countries on both sides of the table,” Hollande said this week. “There comes a time when you have to have a useful president, not just a useful vote,” warned the former president.

former socialist minister

Mélenchon, who hails from the far left wing of the Socialist Party, was a minister under Lionel Jospin. He founded in 2016 La Francia Insumisa, the equivalent of Podemos in France. Mélenchon, 70, is a very good speaker, but a bit of a demagogue. He is running for the third and last time in the French presidential elections with what he considers to be a candidate for a leftist environmental and social “rupture”.

Among the ideas he defends are: putting an end to the Fifth Republic and drafting a new Constitution to take away power from the president before parliament, establish the citizens’ initiative referendum, leave NATO, renegotiate or abandon European treaties and establish retirement at the 60 years.

If the first round were held this Sunday, the outgoing president Emmanuel Macron, who is running for re-election, would obtain 33.5% of the votes, according to the latest poll by the Elabe institute for the BFMTV television network.

The far-right candidate Marine Le Pen (15%) and Mélenchon (13%) would compete for passage to the second round of the elections, according to these polls. One of them would be measured at the polls with Macron, the only one who seems clear in all the opinion polls that he will be in the second round.

The far-right Éric Zemmour (11%) and the moderate conservative Valérie Pécresse (10.5%), are in fourth and fifth position in voting intention, according to the same survey.

Mélenchon is the only left-wing candidate who exceeds the 10% voting intention threshold and who has a chance of qualifying for the second round. The ecologist Yannick Yadot would obtain 5% of the votes, the communist Fabien Roussel 3.5% and Anne Hidalgo, 1.5%.

The voting intention polls of the second round give Macron the clear winner, regardless of who his opponent is in the elections. The polls are the ones that will have the last word.