This weekend’s first round of the French presidential election is likely to see the Socialist Party (PS), a mainstay of the country’s politics for decades, receive its lowest share of the vote since the 1960s.

Only five years after winning the presidency under François Hollande the Socialists, like center-left parties across Europe, are in deep crisis. Hollande’s decision not to stand in the election — an unprecedented move for a sitting president — was followed by a primary in which young left-winger Benot Hamon upset centrist Manuel Valls to claim the party’s nomination.

But, standing under a tarnished party brand, beset by betrayals from its establishment and unable to match the dynamism of his left-wing rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Hamon has struggled to impose himself on the general election and looks likely to poll in single figures.