Towards the 2017 French election: Socialist and Republican nominees from the selection to the presidential election

In France, primaries have become an important part of French party system. Recently, the process, used by different parties, has been opened also to sympathisers. Indeed, both the Socialist Party and the Republicans organised primaries in the 2017 presidential elections. This can be analysed as an expected step to address problems such as leadership and representativeness. In addition, this process is also in line with the personalisation that has become a characteristic of the Fifth Republic. However, after the collapse of the main parties in the last elections, the primary system seems to have entered in a crisis time. For this reason, this article will attempt to analyse the introduction of primaries in France with a particular attention on the last presidential election focusing on the similarities, differences, and effects in these two open selections