French centre-left pins its hopes on ‘Glucksmania’

A new phenomenon is gaining traction in France as the European election campaign gets under way: “Glucksmania”.  

Raphaël Glucksmann, a French writer and activist turned leftwing EU lawmaker, is enjoying an unexpected popularity surge ahead of the June 9 vote for the European parliament. His recipe: espousing strong pro-European and green positions as top candidate of the Socialists and his small Place Publique party.

“There is a pro-European left in France that has not disappeared — it was even long dominant — and my job is to proudly defend that line without compromise or hesitation,” Glucksmann said in an interview. “There is a left in France that believes in social justice, the green transition, and in defending democracy and resisting authoritarian regimes.”

His rise is piling pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, whose centrist alliance is not only polling 15 points behind Marine Le Pen’s far right, but is now at risk of a humiliating third place finish. Glucksmann has crept up to only 3 points behind Valérie Hayer, the little-known politician who heads Macron’s candidate list for the EU elections, according to Ipsos. 

The wiry 44-year old, who grew up in elite left-wing circles as the son of anti-communist philosopher André Glucksmann, is careful not to crow and rejects the portrayal by French media as a long-awaited saviour of the moribund centre left. 

“All I know is that we have been a fragile space and a bit sick, but we are being reinvigorated,” he said. “There is a renewal.” 

Pollsters warn that much can still change before the EU elections, especially given that voter turnout is expected to be low.

But if Glucksmann performs well, his success will highlight Macron’s waning support that once spanned voters from the centre-left to the right. Some of the president’s left-leaning supporters have grown dismayed by his rightward tilt, such as on a contested immigration bill, and are attracted by Glucksmann.

If Glucksmann polls well, it will also shake-up the power dynamics on the fragmented French left by weakening its most radical wing and its most domineering personality — Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the anti-capitalist, Eurosceptic leader of the far left French Unbowed (LFI) party.

“We must push out the walls to expand the small space in which we have been suffocating, stuck between Macron and Mélenchon,” Glucksmann said.

Many in the Socialist ranks have tired of being the junior partner in the now defunct electoral alliance of convenience sealed with LFI in 2022, which was known as Nupes and also included the Greens and Communists. They dream of staging a comeback with others on the left who share a more social democratic line ahead of the 2027 presidential race when Macron cannot stand again and Le Pen is the frontrunner. 

Standing in their way is Mélenchon, who wants to run again, as well as the historic challenge of unifying the different currents of the French left. The Nupes alliance was short lived not only because of LFI’s radical nature, but also because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war have exposed their divergent views on foreign policy.

In contrast with Mélenchon who calls for immediate peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, Glucksmann is convinced of the threat to Europe posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia — and argues that the west needs to continue backing Kyiv and admit Ukraine and Moldova to the EU as soon as possible. 

His strong stance on Russia comes from formative experiences in Kyiv during the Orange revolution in 2004, and time spent in Georgia as an adviser to then president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Giga Bokeria, a former secretary of Georgia’s national security council, recalled Glucksmann as an eloquent western advocate who boosted their cause. “To have somebody from that world well established as a public figure, young as he was — it was very important for us,” Bokeria said. “And he wasn’t a hired gun . . . He was a true believer.”

In Brussels where he has been an MEP since 2019, Glucksmann attracted the ire of China by advocating for stricter controls to prevent imports of goods made from forced labour. He also argues that the EU should adopt a “Buy European Act” to ensure the green transition can be done without decimating industry. 

On the campaign trail, Glucksmann has tried to sidestep the left’s internal battles, saying only that the vote for European parliament will “set the line”, once and for all, especially on international affairs.

According to Ipsos polls, Glucksmann is draining support from Mélenchon and the Greens about equally (27 per cent each of their voters from 2022 presidential elections), as well as some from Macron (17 per cent).

“Voters switching to Glucksmann from Mélenchon cite foreign policy issues, while those switching from Macron are angry about domestic issues like pensions reform and the immigration bill,” said Antoine Bristielle, an expert at Jean Jaurès think-tank.

In a sign of the left’s poisonous infighting, particularly over Israel, Glucksmann was chased out of a traditional May Day march by angry people, some carrying Palestinian flags, who shouted and threw objects at him. The far left sees him as too pro-Israel.

Thierry Pech of the progressive think-tank Terra Nova said the left’s divisions were likely to persist after the election.

“All the leftwing parties added together today are still polling at less than the Rassemblement National,” Pech said. To have a shot at the presidency in 2027, “the left will still have a big hill to climb”.

Additional reporting by Max Seddon in Riga