The French left faces disaster in April’s presidential election

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF François Mitterrand’s death on January 8th Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, went in the driving rain to lay flowers at his grave. She was seeking “inspiration” from the late Socialist president, but it looked more like a requiem for the party’s current candidacy. Polls show Ms Hidalgo, the Socialists’ nominee, winning just 4% in the first round of the French presidential election in April. A result that bad would not only disqualify her from the run-off but fail to meet the 5% threshold for taxpayers to reimburse half of her campaign spending.What has happened to the once mighty French left? Under the Fifth Republic, the grand old Socialist Party has provided two presidents (Mitterrand and François Hollande) and landmark social legislation, including the abolition of the death penalty in 1981 and the legalisation of gay marriage in 2013. A decade ago it controlled the presidency, both houses of parliament, and most regions and big cities. In Ms Hidalgo, it has an internationally respected mayor, praised for turning over swathes of central Paris to cyclists and joggers. The French Green party, with which the Socialists often govern, also has a presentable nominee, Yannick Jadot. Its big issue, climate change, is constantly in the news.