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Radical Party of the Left Parti radical de Gauche | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | PRG |
| President | Guillaume Lacroix |
| Founder | Maurice Faure |
| Founded |
|
| Dissolved | 9 December 2017; 7 years ago (2017-12-09) (1998 PRG) |
| Split from | Radical Party Radical Movement (2019 PRG) |
| Merged into | Radical Movement (majority) |
| Headquarters | 3, Avenue Constant Coquelin F - 75007,Paris |
| Youth wing | Young Radicals of the Left |
| Membership(2022) | 3,500[1] |
| Ideology | Social liberalism Radicalism |
| Political position | Centre-left[5] |
| European Parliament group | ERA (1994–1999) S&D (2014–2017) |
| Colours | Yellow Blue |
| National Assembly | 0 / 577 |
| Senate | 4 / 348 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 79 |
| Presidency of Regional Councils | 0 / 17 |
| Presidency of Departmental Councils | 2 / 95 |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheRadical Party of the Left (French:Parti radical de gauche[paʁtiʁadikaldəɡoʃ], PRG) is asocial-liberal[6][7]political party in France. A party in theRadical tradition, since 1972 the PRG has been a close ally of the major party of thecentre-left inFrance, theSocialist Party (French:Parti socialiste, PS).[8] After the 2017presidential andlegislative elections, negotiations to merge the PRG with theRadical Party (from which the PRG emerged in 1972) began and the refounding congress to reunite the parties into theRadical Movement was held on 9 and 10 December 2017.[9][10] However, a faction of ex-PRG members, including its last presidentSylvia Pinel, split from the Radical Movement in February 2019 due to its expected alliance withLa République En Marche in theEuropean elections and resurrected the PRG.[11]
The party was formed in 1972 by a split from theRepublican, Radical, and Radical-Socialist Party, once the dominant party of theFrench Left. It was founded by Radicals who opposedJean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber'scentrist direction. They chose to join theUnion of the Left and agreed to theCommon Programme signed by theSocialist Party (PS) and theFrench Communist Party (PCF). At that time, the party was known as theMovement of the Radical Socialist Left (French:Mouvement de la gauche radicale-socialiste, MGRS), then as theMovement of Radicals of the Left (French:Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche, MRG) after 1973.
Led byRobert Fabre during the 1970s, the party was the third partner of the Union of the Left. Nevertheless, its electoral influence did not compare with those of its two allies, which competed for the leadership over the left.Robert Fabre sought to attractleft-wingGaullists to the party and gradually became close to PresidentValéry Giscard d'Estaing, who nominated him as Mediator of the Republic in 1978. He and his followers were excluded from the party by those who strongly supported the alliance with the PS.
Michel Crépeau was nominated by the party for the1981 presidential election and obtained a disappointing 2.09% in the first round. He and his party in the runoff endorsed PS candidateFrançois Mitterrand, who eventually won. The MRG won 14 seats in the subsequent1981 legislative election and participated in PS-led governments between 1981 and 1986 and again between 1988 and 1993.
In the1984 European elections, the MRG formed a common list withBrice Lalonde's environmentalists andOlivier Stirn, acentre-right deputy. The list styled as the Radical and Ecologist Agreement won 3.32%, but no seats.[12] The party resumed its customary alliance with the PS in the1986 legislative election and supported President Mitterrand's 1988 reelection bid by the first round.
At the beginning of the 1990s, under the leadership of the popular businessmanBernard Tapie the party benefited from an ephemeral upswing in its popularity while the governing SP was in disarray. The list led by Tapie won 12.03% and 13 seats[13] of the votes in the1994 European Parliament election. However, Tapie retired from politics due to his legal problems and the party, renamed theRadical Socialist Party (French:Parti radical-socialiste, PRS), returned to its lowest ebb.
After theRadical Party opened legal proceedings against the PRS, it was forced to change its name to theRadical Party of the Left (French:Parti radical de gauche, PRG). Between 1997 and 2002, it was a junior partner inLionel Jospin'sPlural Left coalition government. In the2002 presidential election, the PRG nominated its own candidate, former MEP andFrench Guiana deputyChristiane Taubira, for the first time since 1981. However, some members of the party includingÉmile Zuccarelli and PRG senatorNicolas Alfonsi supportedJean-Pierre Chevènement's candidacy. Taubira won 2.32% of the vote.[14] Taubira gave her name to the 2001 law which declared theAtlantic slave trade acrime against humanity.[15]
In the2007 presidential election, while the party supported the PS candidateSégolène Royal, Bernard Tapie, who had been a leading figure in the PRG, supportedNicolas Sarkozy. In the2007 legislative election, the party won eight seats, including a seat inFrench Guiana (Taubira) andSaint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.
The party split onNicolas Sarkozy's constitutional reforms in 2008. Six deputies (Gérard Charasse,Paul Giacobbi,Annick Girardin,Joël Giraud,Dominique Orliac andSylvia Pinel) and three senators (Jean-Michel Baylet,André Boyer andFrançois Vendasi) opted to vote in favour, hence allowing for its passage.
The PRG's then-presidentJean-Michel Baylet ran in the2011 SP presidential primaries, the only non-PS candidate in the field, but was placed last with only 0.64% of the vote in the primary. The PRG supportedFrançois Hollande, the eventual winner of the primaries and the2012 presidential election. In the2012 legislative election, the PRG won 12 seats. With four additional members, it formed its own parliamentary group in theNational Assembly, theRadical, Republican, Democratic and Progressive group.
Although the PRG remained a close and loyal ally of the PS, it has also cooperated with the smallEcology Generation (GE) party since December 2011.[16][17]
In the2014 European elections, the party received 13.98% of the vote on a joint list with the PS, electing one MEPVirginie Rozière, who joined theProgressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group with PS MEPs.
In the2017 SP presidential primary, PRG candidateSylvia Pinel received 2% of the vote in the first round election held on 22 January 2017. In the2017 French legislative election, the party only re-elected threeMPs;Annick Girardin,Jeanine Dubié andSylvia Pinel.
In 2019, the party was relaunched.[18]
The party supportedChristiane Taubira in the2022 French presidential election.[19]
Following the2022 French legislative election, the party's only deputy isOlivier Falorni representingCharente-Maritime's 1st constituency. He was elected in 2022 with 66.11% of the (second-round) vote in that constituency, and re-elected in 2024 with 74.71%. The PRG was the onlycentre-left party on the French mainland with representation in theNational Assembly to refuse to join theleftist electoral coalitionNUPES, headed byJean-Luc Mélenchon,[20] and in 2024 it formed part ofEmmanuel Macron'sEnsemble coalition[citation needed].
The PRG advocatessocial liberalism,classical radicalism,secularism to its French extent known aslaïcité,progressivism,European federalism, andindividual freedom; it differs from thesocial democrats of theSocialist Party mainly by its strong attachment toprivate property.
The party was a member of theEuropean Liberal Democrat and Reform Party before 2012.[21]
Under Baylet, the PRG's party line was centre-left, socially liberal and pro-European. Nevertheless, there were internal divisions in the party. Former cabinet minister and former deputyÉmile Zuccarelli is a left-wing republican who strongly opposedCorsican nationalism[citation needed] and supported the no vote in the2005 European constitutional referendum, positions much closer toJean-Pierre Chevènement'sCitizen and Republican Movement (MRC)[citation needed]. Similarly, Christiane Taubira supported the no vote in 2005 and endorsedArnaud Montebourg rather than Baylet in the 2011 primary[citation needed].
The PRG remained rather weak on its own electorally, averaging around 2% of the vote (2002 presidential candidateChristiane Taubira won 2.32% of the vote); which explains why the party depended on its stronger ally, the PS for support and parliamentary representation. Almost all of the party's deputies and local officials were elected with no official PS opposition. It retained some support amongmiddle class voters and in traditional Radical areas in theSouth West.
The major exception was inCorsica, where the party was historically the largest party on the non-nationalistFrench Left and remains so to its time of dissolution due to a tradition of political dynasties (such as the Giacobbi family) and the weak infrastructure of the PS on the island.Paul Giacobbi representedHaute-Corse in the National Assembly until he stood down at the 2017 elections (Émile Zuccarelli, an internal rival of Giacobbi and current mayor ofBastia, also represented the island in Paris until his 2007 defeat) and SenatorsNicolas Alfonsi andFrançois Vendasi represented the Corsican PRG in the Senate. Giacobbi is alsoPresident of the General Council ofHaute-Corse.
In metropolitan France, the PRG was able to sustain a long-lasting Radical tradition dating back to theFrench Third Republic, most notably in the southwest or departments such as theEure-et-Loir andEure.
The party was represented overseas inFrench Guiana by Taubira'sWalwari, one of the major parties of the local left.
| Election | Candidate | First round | Second round | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
| 1981 | Michel Crépeau | 642,847 | 2.21% | - | - | Lost |
| 2002 | Christiane Taubira | 660,447 | 2.32% | - | - | Lost |
| Election year | No. of first round votes | % of first round vote | No. of seats | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Classified as PS | 13 / 490 [22] | New | |
| 1978 | 603,932 | 2.11% | 10 / 491 |  −3 |
| 1981 | Classified as PS | 14 / 491 [22] |  +4 | |
| 1986 | 107,769 | 0.38% | 7 / 577 [b] | −7 |
| 1988 | 272,316 | 1.11% | 9 / 575 | +2 |
| 1993 | Classified as PS or DVG | 6 / 577 | −3 | |
| 1997 | 389,782 | 1.53% | 12 / 577 | +6 |
| 2002 | 388,891 | 1.54% | 7 / 577 | −5 |
| 2007 | 343,565 | 1.32% | 7 / 577 |  |
| 2012 | 429,059 | 1.65% | 12 / 577 | +5 |
| 2017 | 106,311 | 0.47% | 3 / 577 | −9 |
| 2022 | 126,689 | 0.56% | 1 / 577 | −2 |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979[c] | François Mitterrand | 4,763,026 | 23.53 (#2) | 2 / 81 | New | SOC |
| 1984[d] | Olivier Stirn | 670,474 | 3.32 (#6) | 0 / 81 | 2 | − |
| 1989[e] | Laurent Fabius | 4,286,354 | 23.61 (#2) | 2 / 81 | 2 | SOC |
| 1994 | Bernard Tapie | 2,344,457 | 12.03 (#4) | 13 / 87 | 11 | ERA |
| 1999[f] | François Hollande | 3,873,901 | 21.95 (#1) | 2 / 87 | 11 | PES |
| 2004 | Jean-Michel Baylet | 121,573 | 0.71 (#14) | 0 / 78 | 2 | − |
| 2009 | Did not contest | 0 / 74 | 0 | |||
| 2014[g] | Jean-Christophe Cambadélis | 2,650,357 | 13.98 (#2) | 1 / 74 | 1 | S&D |
| 2019[h] | Raphaël Glucksmann | 1,403,170 | 6.19 (#6) | 0 / 79 | 1 | − |
| 2024[i] | Guillaume Lacroix | 63,006 | 0.26 (#17) | 0 / 79 | 0 | |
Party presidents:
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| Other | |
