Rémi Lefebvre is professor of political science at the University of Lille 2 and a researcher at the Center for Administrative, Political, and Social Research and Studies (CERAPS). He has written extensively on the Parti Socialiste and the French political system, and is the author of the Les Primaires socialistes. La fin du parti militant (2011).
In July’s French elections, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insoumise yet again beat expectations. Its focus on leader and program have proven to be an electoral asset, but its top-heavy structure risks undermining its longer-term sustainability.
The difficulties facing Benoît Hamon’s campaign reveal a French Socialist Party being outflanked on its right and left.