Hamon Found More Convincing During Debates Ahead of 2nd Socialist Primaries

France’s former education minister and presidential candidate Benoit Hamon was perceived as the most convincing in the debates ahead of the second round of socialists’ primaries, a new poll revealed.

PARIS (Sputnik) – Out of over 1,200 people surveyed, 60 percent said that Hamon was more convincing, an Elabe poll conducted for BFMTV revealed on Wednesday.

France’s former prime minister Manuel Valls was found to be more convincing by 37 percent of the respondents.

During the Wednesday night debates, Valls and Hamon discussed various economic issues, security and the threat of terrorism. Both agreed that people returning to France who had fought in the ranks of terrorists in civil-war torn Syria are guilty of crimes and must be punished.

Apart from Valls, Hamon, and France’s former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, another four candidates, namely ex-minister of education Vincent Peillon, Sylvia Pinel from the Radical Party of the Left, leader of the Democratic Movement Jean-Luc Bennahmias and Francois de Rugy from the Ecologist Party, participated in the first round of the French Socialist Party (PS) primaries on Sunday.

According to the results obtained from 7,208 polling stations, Hamon received just over 36 percent of the votes, Valls got 31.48 percent, while Montebourg finished third, with over 17.5 percent of the votes.

The second round of primaries is scheduled for January 29.