PARIS (AP) — As France's prime minister when terrorists killed 130 people in Paris in 2015, Manuel Valls was on the front line of the government's response, calling the attack an act of war and successfully lobbying parliament for emergency powers.

Just 14 months later, having stepped down in December from President Francois Hollande's government, Valls' political future has never been more uncertain.

Should he fail to secure the Socialist Party's nomination for France's two-round presidential election in April and May, Valls could be staring at a long spell in the political wilderness.

This weekend's first round of voting in the Socialist primary pits the Spanish-born 54-year-old, who became French at 20, against six other candidates. With little to separate them politically, Valls' opponents have tried to set themselves apart by attacking him.

Valls, in return, argues that his years spent at Hollande's side, first as France's top cop at the interior ministry and then as prime minister, have armed him with the experience that France's next leader will need as the country battles Islamic terror and other challenges.

"In this difficult world, with my convictions, my ability to speak the truth, I assumed the responsibilities," Valls told the Liberation newspaper. "I take responsibility for has been done."

But his association with Hollande, who gave up on a second presidential term that he had no hope of winning, and Valls' own record in government make his candidacy a tough sell.

Voters could use Sunday's primary to punish Valls for pro-business reforms and a 40-million-euro ($42 million) tax cut for companies that he pushed through when he was prime minister. On six occasions, Valls forced new economic and labor laws through parliament without a vote, infuriating lawmakers.

Valls now says that as president, he would limit this extraordinary power — an about-face that leaves him open to accusations of hypocrisy. Several of his opponents in the primary are vowing to repeal the labor measures that sparked wide protests, on grounds that their passage was undemocratic.

On the campaign trail, Valls has encountered problems, too.

In the western region of Brittany, a young man lightly slapped Valls as he was shaking hands with a small crowd, and was immediately wrestled to the ground. Last month, a man threw flour at Valls during a visit to the eastern city of Strasbourg.

The outcome of Sunday's primary is uncertain, with Valls seemingly locked in a close race with two other former ministers of Hollande's — Benoit Hamon and Arnaud Montebourg.

Unlike Valls, neither carries the baggage of close ties with Hollande's presidency. They rebelled in 2014, stepping down as ministers amid feuding over economic policy. Valls, on the other hand, split with Hollande only when it became clear even to the president that he was too unpopular to run again.

Hamon, 49, a former junior minister and education minister, is pledging to push for the introduction of a modest but regular "universal income" living allowance for all French citizens. Montebourg, 54, a former industry and economy minister, wants protectionist measures and state intervention to boost the French economy.

The four other candidates — Vincent Peillon, Francois de Rugy, Sylvia Pinel and Jean-Luc Bennahmias — aren't expected to be among the top two who will advance to a Jan. 29 runoff.

For the winner of the primary, the road will get even steeper.

The Socialists are being squeezed on both sides by leftist leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and Hollande's former economics minister, Emmanuel Macron, running as an independent. Both are attracting crowds and headlines.

The fear for the Socialist presidential candidate in the first round of balloting in April will be that Melenchon and Macron siphon off so many voters that conservative candidate Francois Fillon and far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen get a clear path to the French presidential runoff in May.</s>MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The first round of the French Socialist Party primaries to determine the presidential nominee finished on earlier Sunday.

"According to the results obtained from 3,090 polling stations, Benoit Hamon receives 35.21% of votes, Manuel Valls gets 31.56%, Arnaud Montebourg gains support of 18.70% voters," the High Authority said.

The polling stations closed at 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT). The turnout at the primaries was rather low, with some 1.7-1.9 million people casting their ballots.

The two top candidates will participate in the second round of primaries set for January 29.

The PS candidate will have to face French far-right National Front leader Le Pen, center-right The Republicans’ nominee Francois Fillon and independent candidate from the left Emmanuel Macron as his or her most important competitors.

The first round of the French presidential elections will take place on April 23.

Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!</s>PARIS, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called on Monday for a big turnout in the second round of the Socialist primaries after a first round vote made left-wing rival Benoit Hamon frontrunner to represent the party in this year's presidential election.

Opinion polls show that no Socialist is likely to win the presidency. They make conservative Francois Fillon the favourite, and put Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front in second place.

But they also show that a victory for Hamon in next Sunday's decisive Socialist primaries second round runoff against Valls could expose the centre ground to which Valls hopes to appeal, and thereby boost the presidential prospects of independent centrist Emmanuel Macron.

"To all those voters who believe in the Left, do not despair, mobilise," Valls said on RTL Radio. Late on Sunday he said the choice between Hamon and himself was one of "certain defeat and possible victory" in the presidential election.

Hamon, 48, a traditional leftwinger, was sacked from government by President Francois Hollande in 2014 for criticising his economic policies.

In Sunday's first round he coasted to a comfortable win ahead of Valls, 54, who represents the more business-friendly second half of Hollande's term in government.

"I think there is no chance for the left to win unless it can put forward a imaginative and powerful policy against a right that is full-on and an extreme right that is dangerous," Hamon said on France Inter radio.

Hamon won about 36 percent of the vote to Valls' 31, according to partial results. The former education minister also secured the backing of Arnaud Montebourg, another left-winger who came in third with 18 percent, and was therefore eliminated along with four other candidates.

The outcome of next Sunday's head-to-head vote remains uncertain though.

This year's primary is only the second in the history of the Socialist party and its allies. Anyone of voting age can participate, and the first-round turnout involved only between 1.6 and 1.7 million of France's 44 million-plus voters. (Reporting by Andrew Callus and Yann Le Guernigou; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)</s>PARIS (AP) — As France’s prime minister when terrorists killed 130 people in Paris in 2015, Manuel Valls was on the front line of the government’s response, calling the attack an act of war and successfully lobbying parliament for emergency powers.

Just 14 months later, having stepped down in December from President Francois Hollande’s government, Valls’ political future has never been more uncertain.

Should he fail to secure the Socialist Party’s nomination for France’s two-round presidential election in April and May, Valls could be staring at a long spell in the political wilderness.

This weekend’s first round of voting in the Socialist primary pits the Spanish-born 54-year-old, who became French at 20, against six other candidates. With little to separate them politically, Valls’ opponents have tried to set themselves apart by attacking him.

Valls, in return, argues that his years spent at Hollande’s side, first as France’s top cop at the interior ministry and then as prime minister, have armed him with the experience that France’s next leader will need as the country battles Islamic terror and other challenges.

“In this difficult world, with my convictions, my ability to speak the truth, I assumed the responsibilities,” Valls told the Liberation newspaper. “I take responsibility for has been done.”

But his association with Hollande, who gave up on a second presidential term that he had no hope of winning, and Valls’ own record in government make his candidacy a tough sell.

Voters could use Sunday’s primary to punish Valls for pro-business reforms and a 40-million-euro ($42 million) tax cut for companies that he pushed through when he was prime minister. On six occasions, Valls forced new economic and labor laws through parliament without a vote, infuriating lawmakers.

Valls now says that as president, he would limit this extraordinary power — an about-face that leaves him open to accusations of hypocrisy. Several of his opponents in the primary are vowing to repeal the labor measures that sparked wide protests, on grounds that their passage was undemocratic.

On the campaign trail, Valls has encountered problems, too.

In the western region of Brittany, a young man lightly slapped Valls as he was shaking hands with a small crowd, and was immediately wrestled to the ground. Last month, a man threw flour at Valls during a visit to the eastern city of Strasbourg.

The outcome of Sunday’s primary is uncertain, with Valls seemingly locked in a close race with two other former ministers of Hollande’s — Benoit Hamon and Arnaud Montebourg.

Unlike Valls, neither carries the baggage of close ties with Hollande’s presidency. They rebelled in 2014, stepping down as ministers amid feuding over economic policy. Valls, on the other hand, split with Hollande only when it became clear even to the president that he was too unpopular to run again.

Hamon, 49, a former junior minister and education minister, is pledging to push for the introduction of a modest but regular “universal income” living allowance for all French citizens. Montebourg, 54, a former industry and economy minister, wants protectionist measures and state intervention to boost the French economy.

The four other candidates — Vincent Peillon, Francois de Rugy, Sylvia Pinel and Jean-Luc Bennahmias — aren’t expected to be among the top two who will advance to a Jan. 29 runoff.

For the winner of the primary, the road will get even steeper.

The Socialists are being squeezed on both sides by leftist leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and Hollande’s former economics minister, Emmanuel Macron, running as an independent. Both are attracting crowds and headlines.

The fear for the Socialist presidential candidate in the first round of balloting in April will be that Melenchon and Macron siphon off so many voters that conservative candidate Francois Fillon and far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen get a clear path to the French presidential runoff in May.</s>Former rebel minister Benoit Hamon, ejected from the government of Francois Hollande, is leading establishment Socialist Manuel Valls into the final round of primaries to nominate who from the embattled French left will run for president.

Valls, a former prime minster under Hollande, will face-off against Hamon in a television debate this week. While the outcome of the primaries in unpredictable, Reuters reported Hamon, a junior minister under Hollande, had made it through comfortably ahead of Valls in the penultimate round of voting.

Hamon came to prominence after criticising the president's economic policy, a stance which cost him his job. His image as an outsider as well as a parting gift from third-place candidate Arnaud Montebourg, who attacked Valls' pro-business policies and urged voters to back Hamon appear to have given the 49 year old an extra edge.

After fewer than four years in power whichever candidate is chosen to run in the April elections will be a rank outsider. The Socialist party has become deeply unpopular in France over its failure to curb unemployment and has alienated its base with its economic policies.

Current polls in France appear to show conservative Francois Fillon has the most likely path to the Elysee Palace if he faces National Front leader Marine Le Pen in the second round of elections.

Fillon, a former UMP Prime Minister, will also have to see off popular independent Emmanuel Macron. The former economy minister has appealed to both left and right and is attracting large crowds to rallies with a centrist agenda. The 39-year-old ex-banker could yet upset the vote or swing the balance from Fillon.</s>PARIS — Manuel Valls, a center-leaning former prime minister who rallied France together after extremist attacks, will confront stalwart Socialist Benoit Hamon in the country’s left-wing presidential primary runoff next week.

Hamon, a former government minister, was leading Sunday with 36% followed by Valls with 31%, based on about half of the vote count, according to the results published on the Socialist primary website.

Whoever wins the Jan. 29 primary runoff will face the April-May presidential election battling more popular candidates from the far right to the far left, riding frustration with immigration and economic stagnation.

Tough-talking, center-leaning Valls jumped in the presidential race in December, a few days after President François Hollande declined to seek re-election and acknowledged his personal unpopularity would lead his Socialist party to defeat in the presidential battle.

Somber but combative, Valls called for left-wing voters to rally behind him as a bulwark against the French far right and “the America of Donald Trump, the Russia of Vladimir Putin.”

Valls, 54, a Spanish immigrant who calls himself “deeply European,” has rallied against populism even as polls show rising support for anti-immigration, anti-European Union sentiment.

Valls urged voters to choose him as a representative of the “credible left” instead of what he described as an idealist candidate who makes “promises that cannot be fulfilled.”

He criticized Hamon’s pledges to pay a universal income as a massive budget burden that diminishes the value of work, and promised to continue reforms to adapt leftist ideas to the 21st-century economy.

Valls has faced fierce attacks from harder-left rivals who associate him with Hollande’s unpopular moves to relax labor protections to encourage hiring.

He argues that he has the experience that France’s next leader will need as the country is facing the threat of extremist attacks, and to revitalize a lagging economy.

He is promising to decrease taxes for modest and middle-class households and to boost police and defense.

Hamon, 49, is a lower-profile politician yet he gained popularity in recent years by leading a group of rebel Socialist lawmakers who opposed Valls.

A former junior minister and education minister, he left the government in 2014 after he expressed disagreement with Valls’ pro-business policies.

He is pledging to push for the introduction of a 750-euro ($800) “universal income” living allowance for all adults in the country.

Hamon is also promising to tax robots, legalize cannabis and repeal labor measures passed by Valls.

Hamon said Sunday that he hopes to make the French “believe again in the left” and insisted his priorities are social and ecologic issues.

Arnaud Montebourg, another former minister who criticized Valls’ economic policies, secured third place in Sunday’s voting. He called for his voters to support Hamon in the runoff to ensure a candidate that can resist the “brutal” candidacies of pro-free market conservative François Fillon and National Front leader Marine Le Pen.

“Next Sunday, I will vote for Benoit Hamon and I invite you to do the same,” Montebourg told supporters Sunday night. By depriving Valls of the first place that might have been expected of a prime minister, Montebourg said, the primary’s voters “massively and seriously condemned the current presidential term.”

The competition promises to be tough for the Socialist nominee in the race for the two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7.

Polls show more support for Fillon and Le Pen.

The left also faces a growing challenge from centrist Emmanuel Macron, 39, a former investment banker who led Hollande’s reforms as economy minister, but refused to take part in the Socialist primary.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is drawing voters away from the establishment Socialists, too.

Overshadowing the Socialist voting is the nationalist sentiment that helped fuel Trump’s successful campaign for the U.S. presidency and in several countries around Europe.

Le Pen and other European far-right leaders came together Saturday in Germany in a show of strength before multiple European elections this year.</s>France's governing Socialist Party will choose Benoît Hamon or former prime minister, Manuel Valls as their presidential candidate after five other contenders were eliminated in the first primary.

Mr Hamon is fractionally ahead of Mr Valls - early results put Mr Hamon on around 35% of the vote with the former premier close behind on 32%.

Whoever wins the second round next Sunday will be unlikely to make it through to the second round of the presidential contest according to current polls which put the Socialist Party fifth.

Current polling suggests far right leader Marine Le Pen and the centre right's Francois Fillon will contest the presidency on 7 May.</s>Paris, Jan 23 (IANS) Former Education Minister Benoit Hamon and former Prime Minister Manuel Valls topped the list after the first round of the French Socialist Party primaries held on Sunday.

Hamon, with the left wing of the Socialist Party, so far has obtained 35 per cent of the votes doing especially well among young, urban voters, EFE news reported.

The more centrist Valls — well-known because of his stint as Prime Minister from 2014-2016 — obtained about 32 per cent votes, falling to second place against all predictions, with about 18 per cent going to former Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg, who was also one of the three favourites.

More than 7,500 polling stations collected votes in continental France and its overseas territories.

With none of the candidates exceeding 50 per cent of the votes in the first primary round, French voting rules mandate that the two top vote-getters face off in a run-off on January 29.

“By placing me in the lead, you sent a clear message of hope and renewal. You have expressed your desire to open a new page for the Left,” Xinhua news agency quoted Hamon as saying.

“We must finish with the old recipes, the old politics. I will continue to defend the priority given to the social issue, ecological conversion and democratic renewal,” he told his supporters.

Long trailing his rivals in opinion polls, the 49-year-old left-winger has seen his ratings unexpectedly start surging a few days ahead of the contest after three televised debates gave him impetus.

Hamon is likely to pass the Left primary runoff with a strong lead thanks to the backing of defeated candidates including Montebourg.

“Primary voters have spoken … They massively and seriously condemned the mandate (of the Socialist President Francois Hollande),” Xinhua news agency quoted Montebourg as saying after the release of the partial results.

“Next Sunday, I will vote Benot Hamon and I invite you to do the same,” Montebourg said.

Losing momentum, Valls said that for the second round, “nothing is written.”

“A new campaign begins this evening. A very clear choice is now for you and for us,” he said.

Dominating France’s political landscape for decades, the Socialists and the broader Left are weakened by internal upheavals that it has been hard for them to build momentum to take on the right-wing and the far right party.

No left-wing candidate is likely to pass to presidential runoff on May 7 after Hollande’s policies had alienated left voters, the country’s pollsters predicted.

The primary is the second such competition held by the Socialist Party and allies.

In 2011, the Socialist Party had opened a two-round contest to all registered voters regardless of their political views as long as they share the left-wing values and donate 1 euro (1.069 U.S. dollar).</s>France’s governing Socialist Party will choose between Benoit Hamon and ex-prime minister Manuel Valls for its presidential candidate after five other contenders were eliminated in the first-round of the party’s primary contest on Sunday.

Mr Valls, who quit as premier last month, qualified for next weekend’s decider but was trailing in early counting to Mr Hamon who performed well in debates leading up to the poll.

Whoever wins next Sunday’s contest, however, will face an uphill task in trying to maintain occupancy of the Elysee Palace for the party with France’s current head of state Francois Hollande having decided not to seek a new mandate after a first term blighted by terror attacks that forced him to call a state of emergency.

Current polling suggests the official Socialist candidate could come fifth in the first round of the presidential contest in April which whittles the field down to two contenders for the deciding round on May 7 where the victor claims the keys to the Elysee Palace.

Mr Valls has found it hard to disassociate himself with the policies of Mr Hollande having been in charge of delivering them until a few weeks ago.

Early results put Mr Hamon on around 35% of the vote with Mr Valls close behind on 32%.

The third-placed candidate in the field of seven, Arnaud Montebourg, was back on 18% and he, Vincent Peillon, Francois de Rugy, Sylvia Pinel, Jean Luc Bennahmias are now eliminated. Mr Montebourg, conceding defeat, immediately endorsed Mr Hamon for the second round.

Between 1.5 million and two million votes were cast on Sunday, a lower turnout than the 2011 primaries which saw Mr Hollande emerge as the Socialist candidate against deeply unpopular centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he defeated in 2012.

That win saw the Socialists end 17 years of centre-right rule at the Elysee.

Current polling suggests far right leader Marine Le Pen and the centre right’s Francois Fillon will contest the presidency on May 7.

However, with former Socialist and now centrist Emmanuel Macron polling well in third place overall, closing in on Ms Le Pen and Mr Fillon, and leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon also outperforming the Socialists there could still be a left wing presence in the second round if enough voters coalesce behind one candidate in the first round on April 23.

Mr Macron, 39, is proving popular with younger voters in the big cities although is yet to make an impact in the countryside where Mr Fillon, a 62-year-old married to Welshwoman Penny Clarke, has his core support.

Polling suggests Mr Fillon, whose victory in the centre-right primaries shocked the pollsters, or Mr Macron would beat Ms Le Pen in the second round even if she wins the first round.

Mr Hollande was in Chile visiting a solar project in the Atacama desert during Sunday’s voting.

Apart from Georges Pompidou, who died in office in 1974, he is the first president under France’s Fifth Republic system not to seek a second term.</s>
• Seven left-wing candidates are vying for the ruling Socialist Party’s nomination, approximately three months before France’s two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7.
• In a surprise move in December, French President François Hollande announced he would not seek re-election, leaving the race wide open.
• The primary includes four former ministers and Socialist Party members: Manuel Valls, Arnaud Montebourg, Benoit Hamon and Vincent Peillon. It also includes three candidates from satellite left-wing parties: Jean-Luc Bennahmias, François de Rugy and Sylvia Pinel.

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Benoît Hamon wins the first round of voting and will now face runner-up former Prime Minister of France Manuel Valls in a second round run-off on January 29.