The Presidential Primaries and Polarization of Mainstream Party Politics

Abstract

Centrist space in the moderate pluralist model characterizing French political competition has been seen as a poor location for candidates or parties to challenge the hegemony of dominant centre–left and centre–right parties of government. Where candidate positions have taken more polarized positions, however, the centrist position has become ideologically viable. In that respect, party primaries for the left and right governing coalitions were vital in Macron’s success, by selecting candidates who adopted more ideological extreme positions than the optimal presidential candidates would ideally have held. This chapter examines how Benoît Hamon and François Fillon won their respective primaries and the impact this had on subsequent first-round performance.