Socialist clash: ‘utopian’ Hamon takes on ‘fighter’ Valls

PARIS: France’s Socialists face a stark choice in Sunday’s presidential primary between diehard leftist Benoit Hamon and reformist ex-prime minister Manuel Valls.

Hamon, the surprise winner of the first round of the Socialists’ primary last weekend, has wooed voters with his staunchly leftist proposals, notably the idea of a universal basic income, dismissed as a "mirage" by Valls.

He also wants to legalise marijuana and tax robots that replace workers.

The 49-year-old Hamon, round-faced with a schoolboy haircut, has a crowd-pleasing eagerness that contrasts with the square-jawed assertiveness of Valls, 54, who was interior minister before becoming premier.

Hamon joined a rebellion against what he saw as the Socialist government’s rightward drift under Valls and President Francois Hollande, quitting as education minister in 2014.

The combative Valls has dismissed him as a dreamer with no hope of becoming president in May.

Socialist voters face a choice between "certain defeat" with Hamon as their nominee and "possible victory" if they chose him, Valls declared confidently after the first round.

Yet polls show neither man making it past the first round in the presidential vote in April, with conservative ex-premier Francois Fillon, far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist ex-economy minister Emmanuel Macron leading the field.

After two-and-a-half years as premier Valls believes he is the best-placed to defend France’s interests in the face of a new protectionist world order.

He has been particularly scathing of his rival’s signature proposal for a universal basic income.

"I want nothing of these mirages that evaporate in an instant and that sow disillusionment and bitterness," he told an earlier campaign rally.

Valls’ parents, a Spanish painter father and Swiss-Italian mother, fled the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain to settle in France, though they travelled back to Barcelona for his birth in August 1962. He gained French citizenship when he was 20.

He has four children from his first marriage to a teacher. In 2010 he remarried, to concert violinist Anne Gravoin. Valls makes no apologies for his pro-business stance and desire to modernise the Socialist party.

But his use of decrees to ram through contested economic reforms as prime minister, as well as a failed proposal to strip dual-national terrorists of their French citizenship, alienated many in the party.

Hamon, who hails from western Brittany, is the son of a dockworker father and secretary mother.