France local elections: Socialists lose heavily - early results

[Lars28]

5. The Parti Socialiste is not really a socialist party.

The French Socialist party is essentially middle-class (and very white), with a strong base in the public sector. The party has never had much support from the industrial working class, as the British Labour party and Germany's SPD have had. France's biggest trade union, the CGT, has traditionally backed the Communist party. From the second world war until the 1980s, the communists attracted considerable support from working class voters, though more recently they have tended to vote for Jean- Marie Le Pen or far left groups, in addition to the Gaullists.Because of its relatively small electoral base, the Socialist party cannot win power without allying with other political forces. Ever since Mitterrand created the modern Socialist party, it has made electoral pacts with the communists - and taken communist ministers into socialistled governments. But in the 1990s, as the communist vote dwindled, the socialists had to search for other left-of-centre allies. - See more at: http://www.cer.org.uk/in-the-press/what-future-frances-socialist-party-needs-rethink#sthash.owK7luHI.dpuf [/div class="excerpt"]

http://www.cer.org.uk/in-the-press/what-future-frances-socialist-party-needs-rethink