French press review 30 March 2017

Former French prime minister Manuel Valls comes in for some heavy stick for his decision to jump ship, turn his coat and desert the sinking metaphor that is Benoît Hamon's presidential bid. Valls says he'll support the centrist, and current opinion poll favourite, Emmanuel Macron.

Socialist presidential candidate Benoît Hamon had a bad day yesterday.

First of all, former prime minister and fellow socialist Manuel Valls confirmed that he will be voting for the centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron.

Then, at a campaign meeting in the western port city of Le Havre, hard-left contender Jean-Luc Mélenchon repeated his determination to go it alone, despite the fact that he and Hamon are clearly dividing the left-wing vote to the detriment of both.

Most recent opinion polls show Hamon and Mélenchon occupying fourth and fifth places in expressions of voting intentions but with a combined score which would put one of them ahead of the troubled conservative François Fillon. If they could agree to combine forces.

Mélenchon's not for turning

Last night Mélenchon assured his supporters that he would be doing no deals with anybody but would continue his slow but sure advance in the ratings. The hard-left contender has recently overtaken Hamon in the polls. He says the next job is to overtake François Fillon.

Mélenchon has done this sort of thing before. At about the same stage in the last election battle, he overtook the far right's Marine Le Pen and the centrist François Bayrou, giving left-leaning Libération the memorable headline "Third man in seventh heaven". But it didn't last. He finished fourth in 2012 with just over 11 percent of all votes cast.

Valls pays price for jumping ship

Manuel Valls has come in for sharp criticism for his decision to support Macron.

He's on the front page of Libération, looking suitably grim, with a headline which could be variously translated as "Mister Traitor", "Disloyal Louse" or "The Turncoat". The small print compares him to Fillon, saying Valls has struck another blow against the belief that politicians mean what they say.

Libé's editorial says Valls was once the turning point but has now proved himself to be a weather-vane.

Former prime minister accused of betraying democracy

In an open letter published in Le Monde, a group of university teachers, economists, journalists and artists condemn Valls's decision as a betrayal of democracy.

They remind readers that the Socialist Party organised a primary election last January to choose a candidate for next month's presidential poll. Manuel Valls was himself a candidate in that primary. He lost to Benoît Hamon, who collected nearly 60 percent of votes.

Those who voted for Hamon voted for a left wing concerned about the environment, about the dangerous divisions in French society, about the place of women. They wanted something modern, innovative and forward-looking. And they had the right to expect that those in the highest places in the Socialist hierarchy would play by the same rules, forgetting their personal ambitions and selfish calculations.

Valls has done nothing less than arrogantly disregard the voice of the ordinary voter. It is an intolerable act, say the writers.

Can the Socialists survive?

A separate article in Le Monde wonders if this action by the former prime minister, who promised before the January primary that he would indeed work to support the eventual winner, does not spell the final disintegration of the Socialist Party.

Right-wing Le Figaro has no doubt whatsoever. The main headline in the conservative paper reads "Valls joins Macron and plunges the Socialist Party into chaos".

The right-wing daily says the decision by Valls to support the centrist candidate is anything but natural. The two men have a long history of personal dislike and disagree on practically every important political question - the 35-hour working week, extra taxation for the rich, the amounts paid to the bosses of big companies, how to combat terrorism, what to do with refugees, the continuing pertinence of the left-right divide in French politics - the list goes on.

Valls once took the brilliant young economist under his prime ministerial wing and promised to look after the lad. Yesterday, says Le Figaro with undisguised relish, Valls was obliged to swallow his pride and kiss the lad's feet. He got nothing in return, according to Le Figaro, but a contemptuous glance.

The cold war warms up to open hostilities

Le Figaro says the unholy alliance between Valls and Macron has provoked "total war" in Socialist ranks. It has certainly provoked mixed metaphorisation in the ranks of Figaro journalists: "the knives are out," we are assured, "the bullets are flying".

In Le Figaro daily poll, 91 percent of 53,000 readers are convinced that this is the end of the Socialists as a political group.