2026 French Socialist Party presidential primary

The Socialist Party after 2022

The PS selected Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo in its 2021 primary. In the first round of the 2022 French presidential election, she received 1.75% of the vote, the party's lowest-ever presidential result.^[6] The party subsequently took part in the left-wing New Ecological and Social People's Union and New Popular Front alliances, while remaining divided over whether cooperation with La France Insoumise (LFI) should extend to the 2027 presidential election.^[3]

In November 2025, Faure was among the figures who launched a separate project for a broad United Left primary. Place Publique declined to participate in that process, while LFI was not among its organisers.^[7] The PS postponed its final decision until after the 2026 municipal elections and then put two competing strategies to a membership vote.^[3]

Internal consultation

On 9 July 2026, PS members chose between two proposals. The party leadership's proposal would have created an open electorate of members and sympathisers paying €2, followed by participation in the United Left primary. A rival proposal called for a separate vote restricted principally to members of a social-democratic bloc. The latter won 55.5% to 44.5%, ending the PS's planned participation in the United Left contest scheduled for 11 October.^[3]

Both proposals envisaged that the eventual nominee would seek a common programme, a legislative-election agreement and a governing agreement with other parties of the democratic, ecological and republican left. The result was nevertheless viewed as a defeat for Faure, who had advocated the broader process.^[3]

Agreement between the participating parties

On 25 August, the PS National Council approved an agreement with Place Publique by 159 votes to 32, with 21 abstentions; Place Publique approved the same text unanimously.^[4] The GRS, represented nationally by Maurel and Marie-Noëlle Lienemann, joined the process the following day.^[2] The agreement retained a provision allowing other parties to join, subject to accepting the rules and common charter.^[1]

Timetable and voting

The primary uses an online, two-round, single-winner ballot. The participating parties may establish at least one supervised voting point in each department, but votes cast there will still be entered electronically on tablets rather than on paper ballots.^[1]

Electorate and participation fee

Paid-up members of the PS, Place Publique and the GRS may vote. Non-members may also join the electoral roll through the Association de financement de la désignation de la candidature de la gauche socialiste et démocratique, commonly described as the "social-democratic pole", provided that they register on the common platform and accept its declaration of principles. Registration closes three days before the relevant round.^[1][4][2]

Voting costs €15, reduced to €10 for students and people who state that they do not pay income tax. The payment is described by the organisers as a contribution to the cost of the primary and to the associated political body, rather than simply a polling-station charge.^[1]

Candidate qualification and charter

The PS's published rules require a Socialist applicant to meet at least one of four sponsorship thresholds:

• 15 full members of the PS National Council;
• 10 Socialist parliamentarians;
• 50 Socialist mayors or presidents of intercommunal bodies, drawn from at least five departments and three regions; or
• 50 Socialist regional or departmental councillors, also drawn from at least five departments and three regions.^[1]

Formal applications must also include the required declarations and acceptance of the primary's charter. Under that charter, every candidate undertakes to propose negotiations with the parties of the democratic, ecological and republican left on a common programme, a legislative agreement and a contract for government.^[1][4]

Opening phase

The field emerged in stages. Brun and Royal announced before the rules were finalised; Guedj and Glucksmann joined in late August, followed by the GRS's entry and Faure's declaration. The first occasion on which most of the field appeared in the same political setting was the PS summer conference in Blois on 28–29 August.^[5]

Coverage at the conference portrayed the race as an early duel between Faure and Glucksmann. Glucksmann entered with support from several prominent Socialists and was the only prospective social-democratic presidential candidate then polling in double figures in broader presidential surveys, while Faure led the largest participating party and had recently won another term as its first secretary.^[12][5] Both camps publicly called for a civil contest, although their competing approaches to left-wing alliances quickly became the principal strategic divide.^[5]

Alliances and La France Insoumise

During negotiation of the common charter, Glucksmann sought an explicit commitment barring future electoral agreements with LFI. The final agreement did not include that demand. Instead, it referred more generally to cooperation among the democratic, ecological and republican left, leaving the status of LFI open to interpretation.^[12][4]

Glucksmann and several of his Socialist supporters argued for a clear break with LFI. Faure, who had helped negotiate the New Popular Front agreement in 2024, opposed writing an advance exclusion into the charter. The disagreement also had implications for any legislative pact negotiated after the presidential nomination and was expected to remain a central issue throughout the primary.^[5]

Participation fee controversy

The €15 standard fee was criticised by Brun, Royal and Faure as too high to attract a broad electorate. Brun called the amount excessive and argued that it risked deterring working-class supporters.^[19] Faure said that he would have preferred the rejected €2 open-primary model. He also argued that, after the available tax reduction, the €15 contribution could cost a taxpayer €5, less than the €10 concession paid by a non-taxpayer, which he described as a paradox.^[20]

Le Point reported that one rationale for the higher fee was to help finance the ballot and discourage organised entryism by people with no connection to the participating parties. Critics within the PS countered that it could suppress turnout. Faure said that he hoped for about 100,000 voters; at the time, the PS reported about 41,000 members and Place Publique about 12,000, while more than two million people had voted in the 2017 open primary.^[4]

Campaign arrangements

After Faure entered the contest, Nantes mayor Johanna Rolland took responsibility for the day-to-day leadership and public coordination of the PS during the campaign.^[21]

Brun and Guedj also stepped back from their roles coordinating the Socialist parliamentary group's budget negotiations until 18 October, the day after a possible second round. Their responsibilities were transferred to MPs Estelle Mercier and Sandrine Runel, respectively, to separate the primary campaign from the National Assembly's autumn budget work.^[22]

Not entering the primary

• Anne Hidalgo (PS), former mayor of Paris and the party's 2022 presidential nominee, ruled out another presidential candidacy in November 2024.^[31]
• Carole Delga (PS), president of the Occitania regional council, endorsed Glucksmann.^[27]
• Boris Vallaud (PS), leader of the Socialist group in the National Assembly, endorsed Glucksmann.^[26]

Considering or pursuing a candidacy outside the primary

• Karim Bouamrane (PS), mayor of Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, confirmed that he would not participate, arguing that the process was too inward-looking.^[32]
• François Hollande (PS), president of France from 2012 to 2017, said that he would not enter the primary while leaving open the possibility of a separate presidential bid.^[33]
• Bernard Cazeneuve (La Convention), prime minister from 2016 to 2017, pursued a presidential candidacy outside the primary.^[33]