Hollande is French Socialists’ choice

With 1.9 million votes counted after yesterday’s voting, the Socialist Party said 56.4 per cent of the ballots were for Mr Hollande and 43.6 per cent for Martine Aubry, who had succeeded Mr Hollande as Socialist Party leader.

Ms Aubry quickly conceded defeat. She had sought to be France’s first female president.

“I warmly congratulate Francois Hollande, who is clearly ahead. His victory is unquestionable,” said Ms Aubry.

Mr Hollande and Ms Aubry sparred in the days before the primary but Ms Aubry seized on France’s World Cup rugby semi-final win over Wales to sound a conciliatory note ahead of the vote.

“When it’s time for the post-match session, everyone parties together,” she told reporters. “That’s how it’ll be on Monday.”

Mr Hollande has never held a national government post, unlike former labour minister Ms Aubry, architect of France’s 35-hour working week and daughter of former European Commission president Jacques Delors.

National opinion polls suggest French voters are ready to put the left back in the Elysee after 17 years of conservative presidents, including the unpopular Mr Sarkozy, who is widely expected to seek a second five-year term.

Starting with Charles de Gaulle in 1958, France has had a string of conservative presidents over the past half-century, but only one Socialist: Francois Mitterrand.

The left’s runaway favourite to become president had been former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn but his IMF career and presidential hopes foundered when he was arrested in New York in May on charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. The charges have since been dropped.

The ease with which Mr Hollande and Ms Aubry both filled his shoes suggests that many voters are simply weary of Mr Sarkozy and his economic policies.

More than 2.6 million people voted in the first-round of the Socialist primary eight days ago, when anti-globalisation hard- liner Arnaud Montebourg scored a surprise 17 per cent.

Mr Hollande, who promised in the final days of campaigning to crack down on banks and financial market excess, had consolidated his position by securing the support of the four contenders knocked out in round one, including Mr Montebourg.

Mr Hollande, seen by many as more centre left, won 39 per cent of the first-round vote, versus 30 per cent for Ms Aubry, often labelled as more old-school Socialist.

Among the four eliminated candidates who sided with him for the run-off was Segolene Royal, Mr Hollande’s former companion and mother of his four children.

She hailed the result, saying it conferred “great legitimacy that the right cannot question”.

“There’s no cause for celebration: this is just the third quarter,” said Jean-Marc Ayrault, the Socialist leader in the national assembly. “Now, the presidential election begins.”

Both Mr Hollande and Ms Aubry shared the main tenets of a Socialist party manifesto that promises to scrap €50 billion (£44bn) in tax breaks that mostly went to the wealthy under Mr Sarkozy, using half of this money to fund state jobs and promote growth, with the rest to cut the deficit.

Mr Sarkozy, who won power in 2007 after 12 years of fellow conservative Jacques Chirac, has yet to declare his intention to make a re-election bid.

His ratings have hovered near the 30-per cent level for months in opinion polls, but his advisers have said they sense a rightward-majority tilt in the French electorate.