Is the French Left having its Jeremy Corbyn moment?

Benoit Hamon won the first round of the Socialist party's presidential primaries.

Has the French Left taken a Corbynite turn? That’s certainly the verdict of many after the first round of the French Socialist Party’s primary.

In first place is Benoit Hamon, who quit Francois Hollande’s government over its right turn in 2014, and counts the adoption of a universal basic income, the legalisation of cannabis and the right to die among his policy proposals, with 36 per cent of the vote.

In second place and facing an uphill battle to secure the nomination is Manuel Valls, the minister who more than any other symbolized the rightward lurch of Hollande’s presidency, with 31 per cent. That of the five eliminated candidates – under the French system, if no candidate secures more than half of the vote, the top two go through to a run-off round – only one could even arguably be said to be closer to Valls than Hamon shows the struggle he will have to close the gap next weekend.

Still, Valls clearly believes that electability is his best card, and he’s compared Hamon to Corbyn, who “chose to remain in opposition”. Also making the Hamon-Corbyn comparison is most of the British press, several high-profile activists in the French Republican Party, and Hamon himself.

Is it merited? The differences are probably more important than the similarities: not least that Hamon served as a minister until 2014, and came up through the backrooms. In terms of the centre of gravity and the traditions of his party, he is much closer in analogue to Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham than he is to Jeremy Corbyn, though Corbynistas and Hamonites bear a closer resemblance to one another than their leaders do.

What will give heart to the leader’s office is that Hamon surged in the polls after each debate, when his ideas were given a bigger platform. But what will alarm everyone in Labour is the French Socialists’ poll ratings – they are expected to get just 6 per cent in the elections. (And before you scoff at the polls, it’s worth noting that they have, so far, performed admirably in the French electoral cycle, picking up on the lightning rise of both Hamon and Francois Fillon.)

That attests to something it’s easy to forget in Westminster, where we tend to obsess over the United States and ignore politics on the Continent, despite the greater commonalities: throughout Europe, social democratic parties are in a fight for their lives, no matter if they turn to the left or the right.

The Democrats, in contrast, won the presidential election by close to three million votes and lost due to the electoral college. They have good prospects in the midterm elections and their greatest threat is gerrymandering and electoral malfeasance. But absent foul play, you’d have to be very, very brave to bet on them going extinct.