MEP Raphaël Glucksmann will be the Social Democratic Left's candidate for next year's French presidential election. He received more than 66% of the vote in the first round of the primary, which saw 120,787 voters cast their ballots. The leader of the Place Publique party won by a large margin over Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure, who received 14%. The other three candidates, Ségolène Royal, Jérôme Goetz and Emmanuel Morel, all received less than 10% of the vote.
Raphaël Glucksmann is an essayist and documentary filmmaker. He is the co-founder and leader of the center-left party Place Publique. Glucksmann has served as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019, where he is part of the Progressives and Socialists (S&D) group.
He was born on October 15, 1979 in Boulogne-Billancourt and is the son of the renowned French philosopher, André Glucksmann. He completed his studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.
Before entering French politics, he worked from 2009 to 2012 as a special advisor to former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, espousing a strong pro-Western line.
He led the joint lists of the Socialist Party and Place Publique in the 2019 and 2024 European elections (where he secured around 13.8% of the vote). In the European Parliament, he has stood out for his tough stances against foreign interference and has defended the rights of the Uyghur minority in China, which has also led to his sanctioning by the Chinese government.
Glucksmann positions himself as a staunch defender of liberal democracy, European federalism, and Ukraine, maintaining a critical and harsh stance towards Russia and Vladimir Putin.
His main objective for 2027 is to represent an alternative to the leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (with whom he rejects any alliance), and to break the dominance of the far right led by Marine Le Pen. ©LAPSI.al
