French Socialists back Macron as they pick through rubble of election defeat

Record ID: 708298

  • Title: French Socialists back Macron as they pick through rubble of election defeat
  • Date: 24th April 2017
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (APRIL 24, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FIRST SECRETARY OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE CAMBADELIS, SAYING: "It's a serious defeat and we accept it, and it is just as much due to the context as the collapse of a political manifesto. The Socialists were not judged on their record or their manifesto but on their ability to win the second round. This presidential election is neither a beginning nor an end." PARTY LOGO (SOUNDBITE) (French) FIRST SECRETARY OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE CAMBADELIS, SAYING: "In this campaign, there will be have been lots of anger, lots of manoeuvring, but very few proposals prompting debate about political expectations and the manifestos. The first round boiled down to one question: who can beat Marine Le Pen?" VARIOUS OF HAMON'S CAMPAIGN SLOGAN ON POSTER ON SOCIALIST PARTY HEADQUARTERS SAYING (French): "MAKE FRANCE'S HEART BEAT AGAIN"
  • Embargoed: 8th May 2017 13:46
  • Keywords: France election Hamon Macron Socialists
  • Location: PARIS, TRAPPES AND HENIN-BEAUMONT, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, TRAPPES AND HENIN-BEAUMONT, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA0086DRE91J
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The leader of the French Socialists said on Monday (April 24) that he would vote for centrist Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election's run-off as his party picked over the ruins of a campaign which saw their candidate unable to scrape seven per cent of the vote.
    "President Marine Le Pen? Never. We have to block the far-right and vote for republican values," Jean-Christophe Cambadelis told journalists.
    The party would mobilise behind the campaign of the former economy minister and onetime socialist Macron to ensure the defeat of the far right, he added.
    Their official candidate Benoit Hamon won the party's presidential primary in January but his campaign failed to take off saddled with the unpopular government's record and outflanked on all sides by Macron and a resurgent leftist candidate.
    "The Socialists were not judged on their record or their manifesto but on their ability to win the second round," he said.
    Later in the day, French President Francois Hollande too called on supporters to vote for Macron.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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