“Tonight the Left holds its head up high again,” said Benoit Hamon in summing up his victory in the primary, which made the former spokesman of the Socialist Party, its chief representative in the 2017 presidential election in France. With his head held up and 58.88 percent of the vote, he beat the prime minister Manuel Valls, interrupted the latter’s final speech with his own, and promised to ally with the far-left and Greens, led by Jean-Luc Melenchon and Yannick Jadot, for the sole purpose of creating a broad coalition. A left-wing majority should become the rescue boat that would save the Socialists from the right-wing tri-color iceberg made of Francois Fillon, Marine Le Pen, and Emmanuel Macron. Piloting that boat will fall to Hamon, who will rely on traditional left-wing social values in this year’s election.
“LITTLE BENOIT” ENTERS POLITICS
Few people believed that the former president of the Young Socialists Movement, MEP, education minister, and spokesman of the Socialist Party would be able to beat the prime minister Valls. Election studies commissioned by France Televisions predicted the current head of the government winning 43 percent of the votes. “The Little Benoit,” as he is called behind his back in the party, was not even seen as reaching the second round. The balance of forces decidedly changed during the debates, more precisely their second part, when the candidates were raising issues of Europe, education, religion, and the presidency. “The Right have grown a lot tougher, they are not what we dealt with before. So we need to find a candidate who will be able to unite us, as all the Left must unite against all the Right” is Hamon’s idea which voters appreciated as highly rational, just like the thesis about the “desired future for the young generation.” Or at least Google says so: according to it, Hamon became the most popular Socialist of late January. In effect, he transformed the idea of making France great again and presented it in an updated left format with a firm social basis. Le Monde’s political commentator Francoise Fressoz believes that Hamon primarily benefited from the effect of novelty. “The results of this year’s primary reflect the total defeat of the program proposed by Valls and pro-government Socialists and offer a kind of final evaluation of Francois Hollande’s presidency. Hamon, for his part, represents utopian leftists who make people dream. This is why he talks about the desired future in which the young generation can find itself. By musing on the universal income, ecological transition and sixth republic, he tries to find another model of social behavior, bypass currently relevant topics of the debates and move away from the image of a ‘manager,’” the journalist explained.
UNIVERSAL INCOME, ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION, AND STRONG PARLIAMENT
Programmatic promises of the French Socialist leader of 2017, however, do not go beyond those of his party. On social issues, they approach those of the radicals, while his foreign policy ideas are close to neutralism. His main and best-publicized idea of the “universal income” met with a great wave of criticism from rivals in the primary. Valls, for example, called for a “reasonable income,” which would not transform the working society into an assistant one and would not cost the nation 350 billion euros.
As for Hamon’s idea, it is quite simple: starting in 2018, he proposes to pay all citizens aged 18-25 regardless of income level the so-called guaranteed monthly minimum set at 600 euros. According to the program, this “universal income” will reach 750 euros and apply to all adults after a few years. However, he believes that a general consensus conference involving all citizens is a must for its approval.
The student Noemi favors this norm, since she believes that “for young people who do not receive scholarships or social assistance, universal income will allow them to focus on learning, to some extent choose from what one wants instead of what one can afford.” Working students as well will rejoice at Hamon’s proposal to raise the minimum hourly wage by 10 percent.
Known for authoring the 2014 law on strengthening consumer protection, Hamon has made social issues central to his campaign. For example, he calls for legalizing euthanasia and establishing the anti-discrimination police, which would seek to ensure equality both in public and in private domains. In addition, unlike Valls, he advocates the legalization of cannabis, which, in his opinion, would contribute to positive developments in the fight against drug trafficking gangs.
On political issues proper, Hamon also holds views which are consistent and well-supported by reasons. For example, he proposes to limit the scope of Article 49.3, which allows the government to make laws without MPs’ involvement, to budgetary matters only, extend the president’s mandate to seven years, and strengthen the mediating role of the leader of the Republic. Nonetheless, on migrant and refugee issues, he often plunges into Utopian socialism, where everyone is believed to be able to vote and work. To sum up, Hamon sees the French society as primarily a civil one. However, as the bank employee Arnault noted, “his vision of society seems to be somewhat anarchic.”
WILL THE LEFT MAJORITY EMERGE?
With a view to include the Greens in his coalition, Hamon talks a lot about the environment. In this field, the measures he sees as appropriate include introducing a new system of taxation, phasing out diesel fuel by 2025, and reducing the share of nuclear power in the industrial energy supply. Coming back to the topic of the left majority, it looks like following his victory in the primary, Hamon will also try to team up with Melenchon who finished fourth in the presidential election of 2012. According to Le Monde’s commentator Fressoz, such a coalition is quite possible, since the candidates have much in common, especially on the environmental issues, but it is undeniable that they represent completely different strands of the Left. “I think that Hamon is a supporter of libertarianism, while Melenchon is an etatist who inherited many ideas from the Communists. Whether the majority will form or not, will depend on the pre-election opinion polls and studies, and they look to be unpredictable.”
FRENCH MELODIES FOR RUSSIAN ORCHESTRAS
Undoubtedly, the traditional two-party system in France is on its last legs. Its current colorful structure, backed up by a parade of independent nominees, is due to primarily external factors and global trends summed up by the slogan “to make the nation (insert name) great again.” But the Socialists’ programs treat international factors in a not too serious, declaratively neutral manner. Their representative in the presidential election Hamon has limited his plans to recognizing Palestine, preserving the EU in the current borders, and stopping the Russian intervention in Syria.
Franco-Russian journalist and researcher of the Vladimir Putin regime Anastasia Kirilenko believes that in relations with Russia, “the Socialists should have continued with the principled stance taken by Hollande, namely keep sanctions on Russia until it returns Crimea, pay attention to human rights in Russia and stay clear of claims that ’86 percent of Russians are satisfied with Putin.’ Left-wing voters expect it from their candidate. Strange as it may seem, today both the Right and the Left are in favor of normalizing relations with Russia, and the war in Ukraine and Russian intervention in Syria are hotly debated. However, in my opinion, the Socialists need to explain to their electorate that flirting with Russia violates national sovereignty and is simply dangerous. Otherwise, especially after the debacle involving Fillon’s wife’s fictitious position in the National Assembly, Le Pen’s victory would become a real possibility, and it would be a catastrophe for Europe.”
