- Title: French Socialists back Macron as they pick through rubble of election defeat
- Date: 24th April 2017
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - APRIL 4, 2014) (AGENCY POOL) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** FRENCH PRESIDENT, FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, WALKING INTO MEETING ROOM WITH THEN PRIME MINISTER, MANUEL VALLS HOLLANDE AND HAMON SITTING DOWN AT CABINET MEETING WITH MINISTERS TRAPPES, FRANCE (FILE - JANUARY 29, 2017) (AGENCY POOL) OFFICIAL IN SOCIALIST PRIMARY ARRANGING BALLOT PAPERS READING: "BENOIT HAMON" AND "MANUEL VALLS" PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - JANUARY 29, 2017) (AGENCY POOL) (L-R) LOSING CANDIDATE IN SOCIALIST PARTY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, MANUEL VALLS, CAMBADELIS, AND VICTORIOUS CANDIDATE IN SOCIALIST PARTY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, HAMON, WALKING OUT OF PARTY HEADQUARTERS, SHAKING HANDS
- 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: LVA0076DRE91J
- 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: POOL (CAN SELL)
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