France’s Glucksmann gears up for possible elections next year

French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, who leads the French Socialists in the European Parliament, said his Place Publique party would start preparing for possible new legislative elections, which could be held as early as July next year, at a rally near Bordeaux over the weekend.

Glucksmann, who had distanced himself from Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise (LFI) despite reluctantly backing the left-wing New People's Front (NFP) alliance in the run-up to July's legislative elections, has now turned his attention to the upcoming elections - legislative polls as early as July 2025 if Barnier's government is toppled, as well as local elections in 2026 - vowing to rebuild a "social democracy" fit to govern.

“We are here to launch the political adventure […] that must lead us to power,” he explained to his supporters at the end of the gathering near Bordeaux.

We need to “do for France what we did for Europe,” he added.

Glucksmann, who obtained 13.8% in the European elections in July at the head of the PS-Place Publique list, had remained relatively discreet over the summer, having been unable to influence the electoral agreements between the LFI, the Socialist Party, the Greens and the Communist Party (PC) because he lacked enough elected officials on the ground and a significant grassroots base.

But that could soon change, as the movement now claims 11,000 members and hopes to attract "five to six times more" supporters in the coming months, according to Place Publique leaders, who said they would regularly visit different regions to meet the French public.

Several socialist figures opposed to the alliance with the LFI were present at the weekend meetings, including the president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, and the former Macronist ministers of health, Aurélien Rousseau, and of Europe, Clément Beaune.

While Glucksmann has always criticised Mélenchon and LFI's “excesses,” with the latter even accusing him of being a “traitor,” he believes the time has now come to recreate a political space between the far left and Macron supporters.

“We need to return to a culture of dialogue, [we need to know how to] build coalitions, compromises, and calm France,” Raphaël Glucksmann further explained to TF1.

On Sunday, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National held a meeting in Nice, with the party announcing plans to organise massive rallies "every month" until the next election - another reminder that France is always in campaign mode.

(Laurent Geslin | Euractiv.fr)