Abstract
AbstractFor decades, the Parti socialiste (PS) was the major party of the French left. It elected a president three times and was a ruling party on several occasions between 1981 and 2017, at which point it suffered crushing defeats in the 2017 presidential and legislative elections. Since then, the PS has been between a rock and a hard place: on the left, it is dominated by Jean‐Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise (LFI, Unbowed France) and on the right by Macron's Renaissance party. The success of both parties has a lot to do with the PS's own setbacks. Emmanuel Macron's election in 2017 was rendered possible by internal conflicts in the PS during François Hollande's term. Those who thought that Benoît Hamon's candidacy was too left‐wing that year, or those who now regard an alliance with Mélenchon as ‘illegitimate’, found refuge in Macron's party. This article aims to explain the reasons for the PS's dramatic setbacks and to explore its prospects for recovery.