Hamon also wins backing of third-place Montebourg for run-off against Hollande ally

yesterday by: Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Paris

French Socialist voters swayed to the left in primary elections on Sunday, inflicting a blow to former prime minister Manuel Valls and placing leftwinger Benoît Hamon in the driving seat to win the beleaguered party’s presidential nomination.

Mr Valls qualified for the primary’s runoff on 29 January after securing 31 per cent of the votes in the first round of voting on Sunday, according to the final official tally. But the former prime minister finished behind Mr Hamon, a 49-year-old former education minister who secured more than 36 per cent.

Arnaud Montebourg, the former economy minister, came in third and was eliminated with 17.5 per cent of the votes. But Mr Montebourg urged his supporters to back Mr Hamon, a fellow leftwinger, further crippling Mr Valls’ chances of securing his party’s nomination for April’s presidential vote.

“You have expressed a desire to write a new chapter of the Socialist party,” Mr Hamon said. “Those [votes] are the first building blocks with which we’re going to rebuild the left.” Related article Leftwinger Hamon galvanises urban voters in French presidential race Growing support for candidate’s radical ideas highlights rift in Socialist party

The result is likely to accelerate the overhaul — and perhaps the dislocation — of the Socialist party, which has torn itself apart over President François Hollande’s pro-business shift and which is scrambling to avert a humiliating defeat in presidential elections in the spring.

At stake in the final round of the primary campaign this week is the future of the party, long one of France’s leading political forces but now weakened by divisions between those who, like Mr Valls, back a dose of liberalisation and budget discipline, and those who feel betrayed by Mr Hollande’s government and want a return to basic leftwing policies.

On Sunday, Mr Valls urged Socialists to resist a lurch to the left: “A very clear choice is in front of us: between certain defeat and possible victory, between unrealistic choices and a credible left,” he said.

After almost five years in the Élysée and suffering record levels of unpopularity, Mr Hollande took the unprecedented decision last month not to run for a second term.

At present, surveys indicate the two-round presidential contest is likely to produce a duel between Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the far-right National Front, and François Fillon, the nominee of the centre-right Republicans.

The polls suggest the Socialist candidate would come fifth with less than 10 per cent of the votes in the first round on April 23. That would be behind Emmanuel Macron, Mr Hollande’s former economy minister, who is running as an independent, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the far-left leader. A very clear choice is in front of us: between certain defeat and possible victory, between unrealistic choices and a credible left Manuel Valls

The victory of Mr Hamon in the first round of the centre-left primary highlights the depth of the opposition to Mr Hollande and Mr Valls’ shift to a supply-side agenda halfway through the president’s term.

Mr Hamon, who supports the 32-hour working week, advocates a tax on industrial robots to fund a universal basic income and wants the legalisation of marijuana, was pushed out of Mr Valls’ government in 2014 and spearheaded a rebellion against the former prime minister’s work reforms in parliament.

Political analysts reckon that the nomination of Mr Hamon, who will benefit from Mr Montebourg’s backing in the second round, would boost Mr Macron, who would attract votes from the centre of the party.