Anne Hidalgo, the French Socialist presidential candidate, has repeated her plea for her leftwing rivals to unite, saying the left risked collapsing amid the alarming rise of the far-right. Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, is polling at a historic low of between 3% and 5% for the first round of April’s presidential race. Roussel said the problems of the left were far more deep-seated than just “a casting problem” of finding a joint candidate. The combined leftwing candidates currently account for between 24 and 29% of April’s first round vote, compared with 43% 10 years ago. The L’Obs poll found that 86% of leftwing sympathisers would like one candidate to stand for a united left.

Source: The Guardian December 13, 2021 06:03 UTC