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France's left-winger Hamon dominates final debate ahead of primary run-off: poll

Xinhua, January 26, 2017 Adjust font size:

A majority of French people said traditional Socialist Benoit Hamon won Wednesday night's final battle of wits before the left primary's run-off, in the lead-up to the presidential race, a recent poll showed.

A flash survey conducted by Elabe pollster showed 60 percent of the 1,215 respondents with mixed political views, saying Hamon was more convincing against the 37 percent that praised the performance of former prime minister Manuel Valls.

Among left voters, two thirds saw Hamon, the former education minister, as the winner of the face-off, with 61 percent against the ex-premier's 36 percent.

In his last opportunity to get back the top spot he had enjoyed weeks before the competition, Valls, 54, projected himself as the candidate of "pragmatism" who believes that "victory is possible" thanks to "a new model of society," in protest against the "illusions" and "desirable future" pledged by his rival.

"The French will vote for credibility. Everything that Benoit Hamon proposes without raising taxes is impossible," he said in the two-hour debate.

Hamon shot back by saying "what I propose is not selling the dream, but I propose justice for those who yearn for work..."

"If the left does not want to act as an extra, it must turn its back to the old order. It must turn its back to these proposals which no longer work," he said while referring to the tax breaks and controversial labor reform imposed by Valls before the latter's stepping down and joining in the presidential campaign.

Hamon, 49, won the primary's first round last Sunday, with 36.3 percent against Valls' 31.1 percent.

The two men represent two wings of the Socialist Party, with the ex-premier being a centrist with a pro-market policy and a security hardliner, and the ex-education minister labelled as a traditional Socialist who wants to establish a monthly basic state income for all adults and legalize cannabis.

Hamon and Valls will face off in the run-off on Jan. 29. However, the winner has little chance of making it to the second round of the presidential election, given the public discontent over the ruling Socialists, the country's pollsters said. Endi