French Socialist Primaries shows a clear shift to the left - SocGen

Kit Juckes, Research Analyst at Societe Generale, notes that the first round of the French Socialist Primaries shows a clear shift to the left, with Benoit Hamon gaining most votes and heading into the second round with Manuel Valls this weekend.

Key Quotes

“A Hamon win would leave a big gap in the centre ground, to the benefit of Emmanuel Macron. In many ways, it is easier for a centrist candidate to galvanise cross-party support in the Presidential election and so, this result may well be seen in FX terms as Euro-friendly. There are far too many twists and turns ahead in this election us to alter a view that at some point, political nerves will drag the euro down but today or tomorrow we may well see a break back above EUR/USD 1.08.”