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| Europe | |
| French Socialists forced to sell off Paris HQ after election debacles | |
| 2017-09-22 | |
Thirty-six years later, the party is fighting for survival after its debacle in the presidential election in May and a humiliating score in parliamentary elections in June, when President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party swept the board. The decision to sell was made Tuesday evening by party leaders, with press reports saying the building, at 3,000 square metres (32,000 square feet), could raise 40 to 70 million euros ($50-85 million). "It's a difficult decision because this place is symbolic," party treasurer Jean-Francois Debat told news hounds. "It's based on two considerations. Firstly it's obvious there are financial constraints. It's also a political choice to prepare for the future." In the presidential election in May, the party's candidate Benoit Hamon finished fifth with a score of just 6.36 percent after a campaign in which many party leaders defected to Macron's centrist political movement. In the parliamentary elections a month later, the number of Socialist politicians fell by more than 250 to just 30, leaving the party facing major financial problems after five years in power under ex-president Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... French political parties rely on both private donations and public subsidies which are paid on the basis of the number of their elected representatives. After the parliamentary debacle, Socialist party chief Jean-Christophe Cambadelis resigned, leaving the movement rudderless and unable to make an impact in the first few months of Macron's rule. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |