French Socialists to fight for political survival as party primaries near

Seven candidates will run in next month's French left-wing primaries seeking to win the nomination for next year's presidential election, the organizers said on Saturday.

With President Franois Hollande having said this month that he would not seek re-election, his former prime minister Manuel Valls is seen as the leading contender to win his party's nomination.

• French President Franois Hollande won't seek second term
• ANALYSIS Taking aim at the establishment: Why some of Europe's top leaders are walking dead
• CBC IN FRANCE 'The old model is exhausted': Populism's effect on French politics

The primaries, organized by the Socialist party, include four candidates from the party, two ecologists and a representative from the Radical Left Party. They will be held on Jan. 22 and Jan. 29, before presidential elections in April-May.

Valls, who announced his bid days after Hollande stood down, is challenged by former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg and former education minister Benot Hamon, who both resigned from Hollande's government in protest over what they said was a too liberal economic policy.

Another former education minister, Vincent Peillon, will also run. Former housing minister Sylvia Pinel is the only female candidate.

• OPINION Centre-right presidential candidate plays religious 'threat' card in politically insecure France

"The French will be listening carefully to the debate in January,"Montebourgtold reporters. "We need the mobilization (of voters) to be as large as possible because it is the only way to unite the Left."

Anyone willing to pay aeuro and sign a declaration that they share the values of the Left can take part in the primaries.

Fractured Left unlikely to beat right, far-right

Polls indicate that there is little chance of any Socialist candidate preventing a run-off next May between conservative Franois Fillon and the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Unlike 2012, when Hollande had managed to rally green and far-left parties behind him, the French left is highly divided after Hollande alienated his allies and many in his own party with his pro-business policy shift in mid-term

Another of Hollande's former economy ministers, Emmanuel Macron, is not taking part in the primaries and is making an independent bid. Far-left politician Jean-Luc Mlenchon and Green Party leader Yannick Jadot are also running, drawing disgruntled voters away from the Socialist base.

• CBC IN FRANCE Trump's win doesn't spell automatic success for France's far right
• ANALYSIS With Franois Fillon, France's centre-right party moves further right
• ANALYSIS The Le Pens have become royalty for fearful faithful in south of France: Don Murray