PARIS—Manuel Valls, a center-leaning former prime minister who rallied France together after extremist attacks, will confront stalwart Socialist Benoit Hamon in the country’s left-wing presidential primary runoff next week.
Hamon, a former government minister, was leading Sunday with 36.12 percent followed by Valls with 31.24 percent, based on about half of the vote count, according to the results published on the Socialist primary website.
Whoever wins the Jan. 29 primary runoff will face the April-May presidential election battling more popular candidates from the far right to the far left riding frustration with immigration and economic stagnation.
Tough-talking, center-leaning Valls jumped in the presidential race in December few days after President Francois Hollande declined to seek re-election—acknowledging his personal unpopularity would lead his Socialist party to defeat in the presidential battle.
Somber but combative, Valls called for left-wing voters to rally behind him as a bulwark against the French conservative and “the America of Donald Trump, the Russia of Vladimir Putin.”
Valls, 54, a Spanish immigrant who calls himself “deeply European,” has rallied against populism even as polls show rising support for anti-immigration, anti-EU sentiment.
Valls urged voters to choose him as a representative of the “credible left” instead of what he described as an idealist candidate who makes “promises that cannot be fulfilled.”
