Will the popular Primary succeed in uniting the left… or fracturing it further? While the majority of left-wing candidates in the presidential election refuse to take part in this election, the organizers, who claim more than 300,000 registrations on their site (311,000 registered on Wednesday January 19), are maintaining their citizens’ initiative. The vote is due to take place from January 27 to 30. Franceinfo takes stock of this election which agitates the left, less than three months before the first round of the presidential election, on April 10.
An initiative outside the political parties
Behind the Popular Primary, no political party but two left-wing activists: Samuel Grzybowski, founder of the interfaith association Coexister and social entrepreneur, and Mathilde Imer, environmental activist and initiator of the Citizen’s Climate Convention. They were quickly joined by many left-wing activists and environmentalists in favor of a union for the presidential election. In total, about fifteen people work permanently for the Popular Primary via the association called “2022 or never”, created in March 2021 to carry out this initiative.
Personalities have also joined in with them, such as director Cyril Dion, photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and musician Yael Naim. Conversely, voices were also raised to denounce the functioning of the popular Primary. “These are spotty people who don’t inspire me at all with confidence and who gather with their friends at the café, nothing more”, for example mocked the socialist deputy David Habib in The chained Duck dated Wednesday, January 19.
A redesigned primary in “popular nomination”
The stated objective of this initiative is clear: unite the left behind a single candidate to win the presidential election. The process to achieve this has experienced some turmoil… After establishing a common base of ideas in the spring of 2021, then selecting ten potential candidates through a sponsorship system, the organizers were faced with the categorical refusal of the most of the candidates to participate in this primary.
Faced with this deadlock, the popular Primary was therefore transformed into a “popular investiture”, with a ballot to appoint the candidate she will support from among seven personalities, sometimes appointed without their agreement: Anna Agueb-Porterie, Anne Hidalgo, Yannick Jadot, Pierre Larrouturou, Charlotte Marchandise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Christiane Taubira.
An unprecedented majority judgment vote
How do I participate in the popular Primary? Registration is open until the evening of January 23 on the movement’s website. You must have French nationality and be at least 16 years old to be able to register online. Voting is free, but a bank imprint is required “for anti-fraud verification”, as well as a mobile phone number and a personal email address. A control process similar to that used during the primaries of the Republicans (LR) and Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV).
Once registration is closed, voting will take place online from January 27 to 30. It will not be a single-member ballot like in other political primaries. The organizers opted for a majority judgment vote. The elector votes by evaluating each of the candidacies presented and awarding them the mention of his or her choice between “very good”, “Good”, “good enough”, “fair” Where “insufficient”. The winning candidate will be the one judged to be the most deserving.
Candidates (very) divided on this ballot
The ambition to unite around the popular Primary is very far from having been achieved. And for good reason, the vast majority of candidates submitted to this popular nomination do not support this initiative and will not recognize its result. In detail, only the former Keeper of the Seals Christiane Taubira, the MEP Pierre Larrouturou and the candidates from civil society Charlotte Marchandise and Anna Agueb-Porterie announced that they would comply with the results. “I accept this risk, my consistency is total”, recalled Christiane Taubira to the attention of the other left-wing candidates, Tuesday on France Inter.
Anne Hidalgo’s position has been more fluid. The candidate invested by the PS herself proposed the idea of a primary on the left to avoid the scattering of candidacies and the dispersal of votes during the first round of the presidential election. Faced with the refusal of her main competitors, she finally decided to maintain her candidacy regardless of the result of the popular Primary.
“If the primary serves to add one more candidacy, it will still have missed its objective.”
Anne Hidalgoon France Inter
The environmental candidate, Yannick Jadot, has always opposed a new participation in a primary after having already won the one organized by EELV. A position that created a stir in his team, within which certain personalities, including Sandrine Rousseau, pleaded for a time for participation in the Popular Primary.
Finally, La France insoumise also rejected the idea of participating in this primary. The tension even went up a notch on Tuesday. the Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s campaign manager asked the organizers of the Popular Primary to no longer involve their candidate and to remove all mention of his name. This initiative is “obviously problematic and insincere”, declared Manuel Bompard, who denounces “the deliberately brutal nature of this initiative, without respect for the people involved in this presidential election”. Unity on the left is still far from being achieved.