Last Ditch Effort to Unite the French Left for Presidential Election, La Primaire Populaire (People’s Primary).
Those of us who have been following this in the French media for weeks, if not more, are pleased to find an article in English on France 24.
A French citizens’ initiative – the ‘People’s Primary’ – aims to fix democracy
French voters who signed up for an online People’s Primary will begin choosing their preferred presidential candidate in four days of voting starting Thursday via “majority judgement”, a voting system touted as a solution to mounting disillusion with the electoral process.
The personalities who are presented for the nomination vote are: Anna Agueb-Porterie (from civil society), Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), Yannick Jadot (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts), Pierre Larrouturou (Nouvelle Donne), Charlotte Marchandise (from civil society), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France insoumise) and Christiane Taubira (supported by the Radical Left Party). They all obtained the sufficient number of citizen sponsorships during the candidate pre-selection stage in October. Mrs. Hidalgo , MM. Jadot and Mélenchon have several times expressed their wish not to appear in this vote to which they do not condition their candidacy. is a citizens’ initiative with an ambitious objective: to unite France’s weak and divided leftist parties behind a single candidate for the April presidential elections. In the process, it will be testing a novel voting method designed to counter mounting voter apathy and disenchantment with an electoral system that leaves many voters feeling left out.
Nearly half a million people registered for the primary, surpassing the organisers’ own expectations. They will choose between seven candidates in a four-day online primary that runs from Thursday morning and wraps up at 5pm on Sunday.
Of those seven only one prominent candidate, Socialist former justice minister Christiane Taubira, is willingly taking part, along with environmental activist Anna Agueb-Porterie, public health expert Charlotte Marchandise and MEP Pierre Larrouturou. But the three other heavyweights – leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Socialist Party candidate Anne Hidalgo and the Greens’ Yannick Jadot – have all said they will ignore the outcome of the primary, making its first objective – to unite the left – virtually unattainable.
Instead, the primary’s experimental nature could prove to be its most lasting contribution: bypassing the country’s fragmented and discredited political parties and introducing a new electoral system designed to tackle voter abstention and build consensus around candidates with the best shot at winning.
More via above link.
Some people think this has effectively become a vehicle for Christiane Taubira.
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Primaire populaire : le scrutin a débuté, plus de 460 000 inscrits peuvent voter
Le Monde.
“Les électeurs auront jusqu’à dimanche pour départager les sept candidats en lice, dont certains – Anne Hidalgo, Jean-Luc Mélenchon et Yannick Jadot – ne reconnaissent pas ce scrutin.”
After several months of preparation, it’s D-day for the People’s Primary. Starting at10 a.m., Thursday, January 27, the approximately 467,000 people registered for the nomination of a candidate for the left for the presidential election can vote. The ballot is different from that usually chosen during political elections, since each voter is invited to give his opinion on all the candidates.
The figures for the nomination vote are: Anna Agueb-Porterie (from civil society), Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), Yannick Jadot (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts), Pierre Larrouturou (Nouvelle Donne), Charlotte Marchandise (from civil society), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France insoumise) and Christiane Taubira (supported by the Radical Left Party). They all obtained the sufficient number of citizen sponsorships during the candidate pre-selection stage in October. Mrs. Hidalgo , MM. Jadot and Mélenchon have several times expressed their wish not to appear in this vote.
Tendance Coatesy 
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