Zürcher Nachrichten - Struggling Socialist candidate insists 'in tune' with France

EUR -
AED 3.827558
AFN 70.343739
ALL 96.964833
AMD 406.16103
ANG 1.879506
AOA 951.933123
ARS 1046.501742
AUD 1.602528
AWG 1.878327
AZN 1.775652
BAM 1.957994
BBD 2.10556
BDT 124.618464
BGN 1.957775
BHD 0.392718
BIF 3016.786406
BMD 1.042068
BND 1.405609
BOB 7.20618
BRL 6.063693
BSD 1.042869
BTN 88.025462
BWP 14.247172
BYN 3.412907
BYR 20424.529726
BZD 2.102106
CAD 1.45641
CDF 2991.777155
CHF 0.931343
CLF 0.037263
CLP 1028.187912
CNY 7.549824
CNH 7.564496
COP 4605.53346
CRC 531.195309
CUC 1.042068
CUP 27.614798
CVE 110.77587
CZK 25.3473
DJF 185.196707
DKK 7.457736
DOP 62.993411
DZD 139.652412
EGP 51.764412
ERN 15.631018
ETB 128.595208
FJD 2.371695
FKP 0.822522
GBP 0.831596
GEL 2.855673
GGP 0.822522
GHS 16.46869
GIP 0.822522
GMD 73.987187
GNF 8994.087925
GTQ 8.050022
GYD 218.177652
HKD 8.112285
HNL 26.264109
HRK 7.43334
HTG 136.893416
HUF 411.752671
IDR 16594.930403
ILS 3.861429
IMP 0.822522
INR 87.996951
IQD 1365.629908
IRR 43863.244665
ISK 145.493914
JEP 0.822522
JMD 166.136188
JOD 0.738935
JPY 161.29026
KES 134.951747
KGS 90.142827
KHR 4221.417198
KMF 492.381009
KPW 937.860664
KRW 1463.470058
KWD 0.320801
KYD 0.869086
KZT 520.711055
LAK 22883.8102
LBP 93317.17572
LKR 303.520154
LRD 187.833126
LSL 18.872246
LTL 3.076956
LVL 0.630337
LYD 5.090542
MAD 10.435216
MDL 19.021591
MGA 4867.499257
MKD 61.527825
MMK 3384.595706
MNT 3540.946475
MOP 8.361391
MRU 41.594178
MUR 48.821273
MVR 16.100342
MWK 1809.030135
MXN 21.349193
MYR 4.655442
MZN 66.592021
NAD 18.872242
NGN 1768.080391
NIO 38.317227
NOK 11.54085
NPR 140.841219
NZD 1.787086
OMR 0.401188
PAB 1.042894
PEN 3.953646
PGK 4.19589
PHP 61.445013
PKR 289.490304
PLN 4.335151
PYG 8141.12374
QAR 3.793652
RON 4.97567
RSD 116.997165
RUB 107.700343
RWF 1428.675013
SAR 3.912282
SBD 8.721607
SCR 14.790679
SDG 626.807638
SEK 11.500881
SGD 1.404421
SHP 0.822522
SLE 23.676168
SLL 21851.646573
SOS 595.545589
SRD 36.987196
STD 21568.700427
SVC 9.125139
SYP 2618.22657
SZL 18.882654
THB 35.941305
TJS 11.106407
TMT 3.657658
TND 3.314301
TOP 2.440631
TRY 35.994243
TTD 7.082938
TWD 33.918306
TZS 2771.900812
UAH 43.142936
UGX 3853.318406
USD 1.042068
UYU 44.349277
UZS 13395.782472
VES 48.217013
VND 26499.785252
VUV 123.716388
WST 2.909027
XAF 656.708727
XAG 0.033301
XAU 0.000385
XCD 2.816241
XDR 0.793308
XOF 648.166544
XPF 119.331742
YER 260.416496
ZAR 18.903043
ZMK 9379.864807
ZMW 28.808701
ZWL 335.54542
  • CMSC

    0.0360

    24.676

    +0.15%

  • RIO

    -0.2450

    62.325

    -0.39%

  • SCS

    0.2350

    13.275

    +1.77%

  • BCC

    3.4600

    143.82

    +2.41%

  • JRI

    0.0800

    13.31

    +0.6%

  • RBGPF

    -0.5000

    59.69

    -0.84%

  • CMSD

    0.0640

    24.509

    +0.26%

  • BTI

    0.3950

    37.375

    +1.06%

  • RYCEF

    0.0500

    6.84

    +0.73%

  • BCE

    0.1050

    26.785

    +0.39%

  • RELX

    1.0550

    46.815

    +2.25%

  • GSK

    0.3450

    34.045

    +1.01%

  • NGG

    1.1296

    63.21

    +1.79%

  • AZN

    1.5120

    65.772

    +2.3%

  • VOD

    0.1423

    8.74

    +1.63%

  • BP

    0.1500

    29.67

    +0.51%

Struggling Socialist candidate insists 'in tune' with France
Struggling Socialist candidate insists 'in tune' with France

Struggling Socialist candidate insists 'in tune' with France

Lagging in the polls and struggling to make an impact barely two months before France's presidential election, Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo believes her time will come in the campaign.

Text size:

"The real issues are household budgets, quality of life, and people's worries about the future of their children, and I think I'm in tune with those expectations," she told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.

The 62-year-old mayor of Paris has so far failed to make her voice heard during a campaign dominated by debate on immigration, identity and security, driven by the far-right and conservatives.

"It's true that you're heard in television studios when you make outrageous statements about foreigners or French identity, but it's not because you get clicks and likes with hateful speeches that this is what the larger population wants," Hidalgo said.

The campaign, notable for the emergence of anti-Islam TV pundit Eric Zemmour, has left her and others wondering "how the country ended up here, with this media show that makes you want to be sick?" she said.

The mother-of-three has refused to engage in personal attacks, remains focused on social spending and the environment, and has steered clear of engaging with Zemmour -- unlike her hard-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon.

But the tactic has often left her appearing to be on the sidelines looking in, lacking political punch.

Portugal's Socialists may have won elections last week and Germany's left-wing Social Democrats have regained power, but there is so far little sign of the Socialists in France ousting centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

- Fragmented left -

The latest survey on Monday suggested Hidalgo would win just 3.5 percent in the first round of the election on April 10.

Such a result would be another catastrophe for her party, which has been one of the dominant forces of post-war politics in France.

Does she feel the pressure, given that a final score of under 5.0 percent could spell financial disaster for the Socialists because her campaign spending would not be refunded by the state?

"Not on my own. And this shared destiny is something that carries you too," she says. "When the left has been in power, it has enabled all the major social advances."

Recent developments have given her camp little reason to feel they are any closer to recapturing past glories.

The left-wing field of candidates was already crowded, but Hidalgo's weakness has led a fifth person to enter the fray, former Socialist justice minister Christiane Taubira, who launched her bid in January.

Hopes of a common left candidate were dealt perhaps a final blow at the weekend when a "people's primary", an online vote by nearly 400,000 left-wing supporters, endorsed Taubira.

But all her rivals rejected the result, including Hidalgo who trailed in fifth place.

Melenchon, a former Trotskyist, appears best placed to challenge the three front-runners in the polls: Macron, far-right leader Marine Le Pen and conservative Valerie Pecresse.

- Reluctant -

Explanations for the demise of the French Socialist party as a national political force are numerous and varied.

Many point the finger at ex-president Francois Hollande whose five-year term from 2012-2017 ended in calamity when he decided not to run for a second term after a series of gaffes and catastrophic polling figures.

"I say to people 'we've learned from our errors, you have to recognise that'," Hidalgo added.

"There's a new generation around me which is starting out in national politics with this campaign."

The Andalucia-born daughter of Spanish immigrants admits she was initially reluctant to stand, having just won a second term as Paris mayor in 2020 and ahead of the Paris Olympics in 2024.

She credits Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa for talking her round.

"He said to me... 'You have to be the one that reawakens the Socialist, Social Democrat family in France,'" she said.

"I thought that I wouldn't be able to look at myself if our country missed another opportunity to address its transition to a green economy and the question of inequalities."

M.J.Baumann--NZN