• The French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste – PS), once the main government party of the Left, has been in rapid decline since 2014; since 2017, it has been struggling for its life.
  • Its electorate shrank due to President François Hollande’s poor management and growing political unreliability during his term in office.
  • Signs of internal crisis were evident from the early 21st century.
  • The Socialist Party has been losing traditional social bastions and organizational resources since the 2014 municipal elections.
  • The 2022 presidential elections already appear lost for the Socialist Party.
  • Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris and the Socialist candidate for the presidency, is from the PS’s vast pool of local authority cadres. She was reelected as mayor in harsh times, back in 2020.
  • A predominantly cosmopolitan candidate, Hidalgo has failed to rally the PS’s forces. She is shedding votes towards the Center and the radical Left.
  • The PS is currently experiencing the inversion of the phenomenon of 21 April 2002.
  • To avoid two undesirable candidates in the second round, potential PS voters are “forced” to vote tactically (vote utile) for candidates that are better equipped to get beyond the first round.
  • Can the PS survive if it puts in a good performance in the upcoming parliamentary elections? The French two-round electoral system requires cooperation to secure seats.
  • A new Épinay is necessary, but is it possible?

Read here (in Greek) the Policy Paper by Nikolas I. Tzimos, Ph.D. in Political Science and History, Panteion University; Research Associate of ELIAMEP’s Greek-French programme fr.gr.