France’s Keir Starmer? French Socialist Faure eyes PM job

French Socialist leader Olivier Faure has declared himself “at the disposal” of President Emmanuel Macron, indicating his readiness to become the fifth prime minister since Macron’s re-election in 2022.

On August 2, the first secretary of the Socialist Party Faure said on national TV that he was “ready” to to discuss with Macron the conditions under which the Left could “occupy the government positions currently held by [Prime Minister] François Bayrou’s relative majority”.

He told his colleagues that if they were offered Bayrou’s role by Macron, they should also accept.

Following Faure’s statements, the left-wing de facto leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, accused Faure of a “volte-face” and of preparing to “take the place Bayrou occupied”.

“He is giving the instruction to say ‘yes’ to any Socialist who might be approached for the position of prime minister. Will [Greens party leader Marine] Tondelier and [head of France’s Communist Party Fabien] Roussel follow? What an incredible volte-face,” he added.

Like Britain’s Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Faure is a left-wing leader navigating how to modernise his party while trying to appeal to a broad electorate. He leads a historically dominant but severely weakened Socialist movement.

After François Hollande’s presidency (2012–2017) ended, the Socialist Party collapsed, suffering defeat after defeat.

In 2022, the party’s presidential candidate, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, won less than 2 per cent of the vote — the worst result in its history.

Under Faure’s leadership, the party avoided extinction thanks to the broad left-wing alliance with LFI and other left-leaning parties in France, such as the Greens and the Communist Party; the Socialist Party won 66 seats.

In his LCI interview, Olivier Faure attempted to cast the Socialists as a responsible force in a country shaken by political instability.

But he also drew red lines, rejecting any coalition government mixing Macron’s centrists with the Left: “I don’t want any confusion; I don’t want a government that is both right-wing and left-wing at the same time,” he stated.

Macron, facing the potential fall of his PM Bayrou, has urged coalition leaders to “work with the Socialists” to prepare for a post-Bayrou era.

Yet negotiations appear to be difficult: Faure wants to bring the Left back into power but without diluting its identity inside a centrist-led government.

If Starmer has shown how the Left can claw back power in Britain, Faure hopes to adopt the same playbook to France.

Starmer’s own trajectory is nevertheless a cautionary tale.

He faces plummeting approval ratings, falling below 40 per cent in August and leaving him less popular than rivals such as Reform leader Nigel Farage, Liberal Democrat chief Ed Davey, and Conservative head Kemi Badenoch.