Centre-left Raphaël Glucksmann announces French presidency bid

The crowded list of candidates for the 2027 French presidential election continues to grow after centre-left MEP Raphaël Glucksmann officially threw his hat into the ring on Sunday (August 23). 

Mr Glucksmann, co-leader of the ‘Place Publique’ party, has long been expected to run. 

He was already included in several polls, which positioned him as a popular candidate among the left but well behind the far-right figures of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen.

He will join several other Socialists in a widened ‘primary’ in October, where a single candidate will be picked for the 2027 election. 

France’s presidential elections will be held in two rounds on April 18 and May 2, 2027.

Head of centre-left, pro-EU party

Mr Glucksmann is a co-founder of the ‘Place Publique’ party, launched in 2018. 

Occupying a centre-left and extremely pro-EU position on the French political spectrum, it has since its foundation been in a close-knit alliance with the Socialist party. 

In 2024, Mr Glucksmann led a coalition of the two parties in the 2024 European elections, where he was elected as an MEP and led the group to 14% of the vote.

The son of philosopher André Glucksmann (who transitioned from a pro-Marxist position to eventually supporting Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election), Raphaël Glucksmann has spent much of his life in politics. 

He worked as an adviser to the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili between 2008 and 2012, as well as a political journalist and writer before co-launching the Place Publique party. 

Mr Glucksmann was also recently informed in a TV documentary that his grandfather on his father's side was a spy for Stalin and the USSR during World War Two.

Imprisoned by the British and sent on a boat to Canada for internment during the early stages of the war, the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank. 

His long-term partner is Léa Salamé, a leading French TV presenter, with the two in a relationship since 2015. 

She has temporarily stepped back from her flagship role on the TV show ‘20 heures’ in support of his campaign as well as to prevent a clash of interests – she often interviews politicians on the show. 

She previously took similar measures in 2019, and for the 2024 European elections refrained from interviewing political figures, handing this responsibility over to colleagues. 

Will take part in primary 

Her time off-air may be short-lived however, with Mr Glucksmann having to pass through a packed ‘primary’ before running in the 2027 elections. 

Several left and centre-left politicians have declared their candidacy for the presidency, or declared an interest in representing the party in the election.

The Socialist party is therefore hosting a primary to select a single candidate to represent them, to prevent any vote-splitting. 

This closed primary – only Socialist and Place Publique party members will be able to vote – will decide the candidate to represent the alliance going forward.

Alongside Mr Glucksmann, candidates confirmed to be running in the primary are Ségolène Royal (Socialist presidential candidate in 2007 and ex-partner of former French President François Hollande) and Philippe Brun. 

Several others including Olivier Faure (head of the Socialist Party), Carole Delga (president of the Occitanie region), Jérome Guedj, and Boris Vallaud are expected to join the primary before the September 15 cut-off date. 

One exception is Karim Bouamrane, Socialist mayor of Saint-Ouen (a Parisian suburb). 

Despite being a member of the party and announcing his presidential bid earlier this year, he has stated he will not join the primary and run in the 2027 contest regardless. 

Mr Glucksmann’s campaign has support from several notable individuals, and has a good chance of being victorious in this primary to represent the centre-left bloc. 

Backers include Marguerite Cazeneuve, who was deputy head of France’s social security programme (Caisse nationale d’Assurance maladie) until leaving to support Mr Glucksmann’s campaign, and former Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau. 

Will there be a second ‘primary’?

Even if he wins this Socialist primary however, the left-of-centre field is already looking crowded. 

Alongside the eventual Socialist candidate, the Greens and Communists also occupy this space, and may run their own presidential campaigns. 

The three parties have allied several times in recent years, both under far-reaching alliances with other left-wing groups including La France Insoumise and more recently as a tripartite pact for the 2026 municipal elections. 

However, it is typically rare for parties to unite in the presidential elections, as groups prefer to run their own candidates and then back a preferred winner in the second round. 

With the far-right Rassemblement National all but assured to make it to the second round, groups may buck this trend to come together for the first round, to increase their chances of making it through themselves and be the far-right’s opposition in the second-round run off. 

This is most likely with the Socialists, Greens, and Communists, who should find it easier to create a joint-platform. 

Indeed, former Green leader Yannick Jadot announced that he will support Mr Glucksmann’s primary campaign in an early sign of cross-party support.

This could see wider alliances between centrists – former Prime Ministers Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe are both running in the 2027 election – and either the left or right in the first round.

There have even been calls by former Prime Minister François Bayrou for a ‘republican primary’ including all parties from the left, centre, and right to come together for a single candidate. 

This, Mr Bayrou believes, would give them an increased chance of reaching the second round, as well as extended timelines to form an agreeable policy platform that would allow for a stable post-election alliance between the groups. 

Such an agreement is unlikely, however. 

Note that all left-wing parties have comprehensively refused to work with the far-left La France Insoumise in any capacity. 

Mr Glucksmann has long been a critic of the group, and was against previous left-wing alliances between the Socialists and far-left.

Does he poll well? 

Mr Glucksmann is notable for his strong polling figures among the centre-left and Socialists, which grants him additional legitimacy for the primary. 

He consistently ranks as among the most popular politicians among Socialist party members, behind only François Hollande – who may make a last-minute bid for the presidency himself. 

When placed alongside candidates from across the political spectrum however, Mr Glucksmann’s support is less prevalent. 

Polls on first-round voting intentions place his support at anywhere from 8.5% to 14% this year, averaging around 11%. 

While this puts him ahead of his centre-left peers, he is considerably behind the far-right, with Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen topping intentions at around 37% each, with the latter set to represent the Rassemblement National in the spring election.

More worryingly, he is also behind figures to the left – firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon is polling at 17% – and the centre, with Edouard Philippe also polling at around 17%. 

This would see Mr Glucksmann easily defeated in the first round of the presidential election if he became the final candidate.

While he has support from the Socialist cohort, he struggles with his image as a member of the intellectual elite who is out of touch with the everyday challenges in France. 

Such views were only exacerbated in May 2026 following the leaking of an internal party document advising him to refrain from attempting to gain the support of working class voters, the 18 - 25 cohort, and groups such as single parents. 

What are his policies?

Mr Glucksmann is yet to reveal a full manifesto for 2027. 

A full programme may not be available until after the Socialist primary, but a good basis for what is expected can be found in the Place Publique’s 2025 document ‘Our Vision for France’. 

It lays out many of the party's grandest ambitions, and should have considerable overlap with the 2027 manifesto. 

Key pledges include investment in education, national defence, reindustrialisation, a massive focus on France’s ecological transition, all while cutting the deficit and the nation’s spiralling debt. 

Mr Glucksmann does not support the 2023 pension reform that raised the pension age to 64 before it was suspended last year.

Pension reform is sure to be a focal point of the presidential election, but unlike many other Socialists and left-wing groups, Mr Glucksmann says reform is necessary and a standardised retirement age of 62 (the age prior to the reforms) cannot be maintained.

He has previously hinted that some people will need to work longer while others would ‘be able to retire at 60’ with retirement based on career hardship and experiences, without exactly specifying who belongs to each camp. 

Mr Glucksmann is ardently pro-European, and has called for deeper integration within the EU. 

This includes an increase to the EU budget, and a €500 billion joint-defence fund for Europe.

While the party calls for a ‘limit’ to immigration, there are no specifics on policies regarding visas or residency status for Britons, Americans, etc. 

Most of the party’s current immigration policies focus on the regularisation of people working but at risk of losing their rights, helping them to integrate into French society.