"I will win": François Ruffin formalizes his candidacy for 2027 and calls for a left-wing primary

In Libération , MP François Ruffin called for a left-wing primary, "from Poutou to Ruffin," for the 2027 presidential election, stating that he would participate and win.

"We need a primary, a 'geyser primary', which is not just a tiebreaker election, but a moment of overflow," declared the MP, who broke with LFI during the last legislative elections and now sits within the Green group.

The Somme representative announced his intention to run there. "And I will win," he promised, recalling that he had beaten the National Rally "three times" in working-class areas.

"I speak for the working world, the ordinary people who keep the country going," he says.

The MP, who initiated the idea of ​​the New Popular Front in the legislative elections to unite the left, recalls that in one month there were "9 million voters."

"We could give them back their voice, couldn't we? It's either the primary strategy or the depressing strategy," he asserts.

The MP believes that it's "the parties, a priori," who should organize this primary. "It would be better with them. Will they all say yes tomorrow morning? Probably not. But within each of them, there are unitarians versus identitarians. In any case, this primary will take place."

As for the calendar, he recommends "candidates in April 2026 and a vote in the fall," for "a two-round election, modeled on the presidential election."

He also details the criteria for candidacy: "100,000 citizen endorsements, 250 from mayors. Ten ideas, as a statement of faith." He suggests "a physical vote, with one polling station per canton," with a target of "2 to 3 million voters."

For him, the rebels and Jean-Luc Mélenchon are welcome in this primary, whose scope must be that of the NFP: "from Philippe Poutou to François Hollande. It is up to them to choose whether or not to enter."

As for the possibility of Jean-Luc Mélenchon running without going through the primary, he believes that "it's all a question of balance of power. A candidate legitimized by millions of voters disrupts the calculations."

Asked whether he would support whoever the winner was, including François Hollande or Raphaël Glucksmann, he said he could not imagine "taking part in such an election without then respecting the rules."