Paris: Seven candidates are seeking to clinch the nomination to be the ruling Socialist party candidate in France’s presidential elections due in April and May this year.
Voting takes place on January 22 and 29 in a primary contest that will decide the nominee.
Here are brief profiles of the six men and one woman who are running:
Manuel Valls: The Spanish-born 54-year-old is a Barcelona football club fan who served as prime minister from 2014 until last month under outgoing and highly unpopular Socialist President Francois Hollande.
After helping persuade Hollande not to seek re-election, Valls has appeared caught between his reformist, tough-talking instincts and his need to appeal to the party’s leftwing base.
Arnaud Montebourg: A former industry minister who was sacked in 2014 after criticising Hollande’s economic programme, Montebourg is a leftwing maverick best known for promoting “Made in France” manufacturing.
The 54-year-old former lawyer is from the left wing of the Socialist party and is a staunch critic of the European Union, multi-national companies and globalisation.
Benoit Hamon: The former education minister has captured headlines with his proposal to pay everyone in France a so-called “basic income” of around 750 euros ($800) a month, a costly and radical reform of state spending.
The leftwinger sees basic income as a response “to the likely increasing rarity of work linked to the digital revolution” and as a way to allow people to do other activities besides their job. Hamon estimates it would cost 300 billion euros a year, paid in part by a new tax on robots.
Vincent Peillon: Also a former education minister, the 56-year-old philosophy professor was a surprise entrant into the race after stepping back from politics two years ago to concentrate on teaching and writing.
The sporty intellectual, viewed as aloof by some of his critics, says his decision to stand was prompted by Hollande’s choice not to seek re-election.
During his time as education minister, he introduced an experimental teaching programme designed to tackle gender stereotypes at school — provoking protests from conservatives.
Sylvia Pinel: The former housing minister is the youngest contender at age 39 and is also the only woman in the line-up — a gender imbalance that was also evident in the primary contest of the rightwing Republicans
Pinel heads a small leftist party which favours decriminalising cannabis, allowing euthanasia but also reducing taxes on companies.
Francois de Rugy: An MP with an aristocratic background from western France, de Rugy is an ecologist who says he is standing to make sure the environment figures in the Socialist party debate.
The 43-year-old wants France to aim for 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050 which he says would create 500,000 jobs.
Jean-Luc Bennahmias: A former centre-left MEP who founded his own party in 2014, the Democratic Front, 62-year-old Bennahmias has struggled to make an impact during campaigning.
He also favours the idea of basic income. — AFP
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