{"text":[[{"start":7.56,"text":"Most politicians launch their campaigns from a podium. Raphaël Glucksmann began his bid for the French presidency this week by climbing an 80-metre wind turbine. “I’m not afraid, I can’t wait to be at the top,” said the newly declared candidate, clad in a helmet and harness. Back on the ground, he promised a “100-day environmental revolution” if elected in 2027 to fight climate change and wean France off fossil fuels."}],[{"start":34.2,"text":"After one of France’s hottest summers on record and devastating wildfires, the issue puts him at the forefront of public debates. But his bid for the Élysée faces formidable odds: the French left has not reached a presidential run-off since 2012. With the far right’s Marine Le Pen all but certain to secure one of two places in next May’s run-off, Glucksmann will also be squeezed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left, which is gaining in the polls, and Emmanuel Macron’s centrist heirs."}],[{"start":63.68,"text":"Glucksmann, 46, a writer and activist turned EU parliamentarian who launched his own party Place Publique in 2018, gained national prominence after leading a joint list with the Socialists to come third in European elections two years ago. Though awkward at times — his primetime announcement of his candidacy appeared heavily rehearsed — advocates say his convictions come through."}],[{"start":85.72,"text":"“I don’t come from the usual political mould,” Glucksmann told TF1 news. “I wasn’t a parliamentary attaché at 20 or an official in a political party, I was standing beside people who had escaped genocide in Rwanda, and opponents of Russian imperialism in Georgia and Ukraine.”"}],[{"start":103.68,"text":"“Many French people no longer believe in politics because it’s not sincere. It’s good to have a fresh start with someone sincere,” said close ally Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the Socialist mayor of Rouen. Yet an elite, intellectual background may not always play in his favour, and some positions irk leftist voters, who have accused him of being too pro-Israel, too pro-nuclear power, and not radical enough on the economy."}],[{"start":126.68,"text":"He forms a power couple with his partner Léa Salamé, one of France’s best-known broadcast journalists, who stepped down from anchoring her primetime news show for the duration of his candidacy. Paris Match splashed photographs of the pair on the beach in Corsica on the cover in August just beneath images of Macron on a jet ski. Glucksmann has a slight “champagne socialist” air that could hurt him, said Daniel Boy of Sciences Po."}],[{"start":151.18,"text":"Glucksmann was born just outside Paris to activist, intellectual parents. His late father, André Glucksmann, was a well-known philosopher who broke with his early dabblings with communism to become an anti-Maoist leftist for most of his life, like his wife, Françoise, also an activist and a screenwriter. The Glucksmann household played host to a rotating cast of activists and political outcasts. His late mother, whom he called “Fanfan”, has described how a five-year-old Raphaël would lie on the floor with his father discussing the non-existence of God."}],[{"start":183.46,"text":"Glucksmann’s outspoken critiques of Russia come from formative experiences in Kyiv during the Orange revolution in 2004 and in Georgia, advising then president Mikheil Saakashvili following Russia’s 2008 invasion."}],[{"start":196.4,"text":"His early warnings to the EU about Russian interference and advocacy for China’s Uyghur minority are examples of his steadfast views, his backers say. “He’s someone who is tenacious, determined. When he takes on a subject — even if it’s not fashionable, even if no one cares — he’ll be right,” said Aurore Lalucq, a Place Publique MP in Brussels."}],[{"start":217.04,"text":"Early polls show that Glucksmann’s campaign has a long road ahead. A survey this week put him fourth at 11 per cent in first-round voting intentions, behind Le Pen, Mélenchon and former Macron prime minister Édouard Philippe. Yet in a hypothetical run-off against Le Pen, he performed substantially better than Mélenchon."}],[{"start":234.92,"text":"“What is different this time is that the RN doesn’t just have a foot in the door, they have nine-and-a-half toes in at the Élysée,” said Mayer-Rossignol. “The left needs to ask itself if it wants to win. I’m not interested in being the best-looking corpse in the graveyard.”"}],[{"start":250.24,"text":"Glucksmann’s first test will be an October primary against other Socialist candidates for the centre-left nomination. But his biggest task is to close the gap with Mélenchon by persuading leftwing voters that he offers their best chance of reaching the run-off, said Mathieu Gallard of Ipsos. Glucksmann is not yet known as a national politician and his message is less closely aligned with voters’ traditional priorities like cost of living, he added."}],[{"start":276.88,"text":"At a conference organised by the main business lobby this week, Glucksmann drew applause for his frontal attacks on Le Pen’s bid to clamp down on immigration to cut France’s debt. But he also highlighted his fight against “the religion of free trade” and promised to create a society of “workers not trustafarians and heirs”, notably through a new tax on inheritances over €2mn."}],[{"start":298.8,"text":"During the Covid-19 pandemic, Glucksmann advocated cancelling Eurozone sovereign debt held by the European Central Bank, although he now opposes Mélenchon’s attempt to revive a similar idea. “There are still some rough edges in his programme,” said one executive."}],[{"start":313.92,"text":"Glucksmann is determined to beat the odds. “The illusion of the global village, where Europe is the butt of the joke, is over,” he told business leaders on Thursday. “We are a vast country with a gigantic destiny that is not yet over; let us not give in to defeatism.”"}],[{"start":329.24,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787987547_5475.mp3"}