French green party candidate Yannick Jadot on Thursday announced he was dropping from the presidential race and would back Socialist party candidate Benoit Hamon in two stage elections in April and May.

"I am withdrawing as a candidate in the presidential election to take part in a great adventure," Jadot said on France 2 television after striking a "marvelous" agreement with with the Socialists earlier in the day.

Opinion polls show Jadot getting one or two percent of the vote, but by throwing his support behind fourth place Hamon the left hopes to consolidate its voter base to advance in the polls. Hamon has unsuccessfully sought to persuade Communist-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon to drop out of the race and support his bid.

Watch video 25:59 Share French election campaign - battle of the outsiders? Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2XHal French election campaign - battle of the outsiders?

Some polls show all three men may have enough supporters to give a leftist alliance a chance to mount a challenge.

Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader of the National Front, is currently ahead in the polls with about a quarter of the vote. But she is forecasted to lose the second round vote on May 7 to centrist former economy minister Emmanuel Macron or Francois Fillon, the conservative candidate for the right-wing Republicans party.

Macron was given a slight boost this week after centrist François Bayrou threw his support behind the centrist candidate. Two new polls released showed Macron neck-and-neck with Fillon at about 20 percent each, while a third showed the former economy minister slightly ahead of Fillon after Bayrou's announcement.

A leftist alliance would make Macron and Fillon path to the presidency more difficult.

All the polls show Le Pen winning the first round election on April 23 but losing in the May 7 runoff against either Macron or Fillon.

cw/rc (AFP, dpa, Reuters) </s> Former rebel minister Benoit Hamon, ejected from the government of Francois Hollande, is leading establishment Socialist Manuel Valls into the final round of primaries to nominate who from the embattled French left will run for president.

Valls, a former prime minster under Hollande, will face-off against Hamon in a television debate this week. While the outcome of the primaries in unpredictable, Reuters reported Hamon, a junior minister under Hollande, had made it through comfortably ahead of Valls in the penultimate round of voting.

Hamon came to prominence after criticising the president's economic policy, a stance which cost him his job. His image as an outsider as well as a parting gift from third-place candidate Arnaud Montebourg, who attacked Valls' pro-business policies and urged voters to back Hamon appear to have given the 49 year old an extra edge.

After fewer than four years in power whichever candidate is chosen to run in the April elections will be a rank outsider. The Socialist party has become deeply unpopular in France over its failure to curb unemployment and has alienated its base with its economic policies.

Current polls in France appear to show conservative Francois Fillon has the most likely path to the Elysee Palace if he faces National Front leader Marine Le Pen in the second round of elections.

Fillon, a former UMP Prime Minister, will also have to see off popular independent Emmanuel Macron. The former economy minister has appealed to both left and right and is attracting large crowds to rallies with a centrist agenda. The 39-year-old ex-banker could yet upset the vote or swing the balance from Fillon. </s> Benoit Hamon will be the French Socialist Party's candidate for April's presidential election.

He beat ex-prime minister Manuel Valls in the vote on Sunday, partial results showed.

Former education minister Mr Hamon was dismissed from current French President Francois Hollande's government for criticising a pro-business shift in policy.

He won 59% of the vote, but is not expected to perform well in the presidential elections as Conservative Francois Fillon, right-wing Marine Le Pen, and centrist Emmanuel Macron led the polls. </s> Benoît Hamon and Manuel Valls on Sunday advanced to the second round of France’s left-wing primary, setting up a battle for who will represent the ruling Socialists in the upcoming presidential election, but also for the soul of their party.

Hamon, 49, delivered the latest unexpected turn to a presidential race already full of surprises when he finished a decisive first on Sunday evening. The one-time underdog claimed more than 36 percent of all votes cast in the first round of the primary organized by the Socialist Party, but that also included allied, micro-parties.

In one week, he will face off against Manuel Valls, a former prime minister who was long touted as the frontrunner of the primary, but who nevertheless managed to save face by winning around 31 percent support and make it into the run-off.

“Left-wing constituents voted with their hearts and have not given up,” Hamon, a former education minister and admirer of US Senator Bernie Sanders, said in a victory speech as his campaign’s headquarters in Paris.

His triumph at the ballot box was then sweetened by an endorsement by primary rival Arnaud Montebourg, who came in third place with around 18 percent of votes.

Speaking to supporters late on Sunday, Valls described the upcoming duel as a simple choice between “certain defeat” in the presidential election if Hamon is chosen, and “possible victory” if he is picked as the Socialist’s nominee.

Vincent Peillon, who came in fourth place with around 7 percent of votes, also addressed the press following the primary results, but refused to back either Hamon or Valls.

“Clearly this is going to be major choice for the Socialist Party,” said FRANCE 24 politics editor Marc Perelman, noting that Hamon and Valls represent extreme opposites within the political camp.

Valls, 54, has angered many left-wing sympathisers by championing pro-market economic policies alongside President François Hollande, while approving a state of emergency restricting civil liberties after a series of terrorist attacks.

Hamon and Montebourg are among a list of former ministers who quit Hollande’s government in protest over the pro-business turn.

Hamon – who supports implementing a universal basic income and shortening the work week from 35 to 32 hours – addressed this rift directly as he proclaimed victory on Sunday. “By putting me in the lead, you have sent a clear message of hope and renewal, the desire to write a new chapter for the left in France,” he said.

“Not that long ago Valls said that there were two lefts that could no longer be reconciled,” Perelman reminded. “But those two lefts will be face to face next Sunday. The question for Socialists is does the party go with Valls and towards the centre, or with Hamon and move to the left?”

Around 2 million people participated in Sunday’s left-wing primary, which was open to any eligible French voter or Socialist Party member who was willing to part with 1 euro.

While turnout might have exceeded the 1.5-million target set by Socialist Party organisers, it was still less than half of the 4.3 million people who cast ballots in France’s conservative primary in November.

Experts said it would prove difficult for either Hamon or Valls to pivot to the general election, after five years of Socialist rule marked by fears of rising immigration and by the failure to significantly lower unemployment.

“Tomorrow the Socialist Party chiefs are going to congratulate themselves on the great turnout, because no one would have predicted they would get that many voters just yesterday,” Cecile Alduy, an associate professor at Stanford University, told FRANCE 24.

“At the same time, 2 million people is not that much, and also it's people who are extremely politicised and on the left. Down the road, the Socialists are going to go against a much bigger electorate that is not going to be sensitive to the same kinds of arguments,” she added.

Indeed, polls show the mainstream left is not expected to perform well in France’s presidential and parliamentary elections this upcoming spring.

Whoever wins the left-wing primary is expected to finish in only fifth place in the race for the Elysée Palace.

Opinions polls reveal Hamon or Valls would lose to conservative nominee François Fillon, but also far-right leader Marine Le Pen, radical-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and independent centrist Emmanuel Macron.

“We must now amplify the movement… strengthen it even more,” Hamon said on Sunday, hoping the primary will help infuse what has been announced as a fated presidential campaign with fresh momentum.

He and Valls will face off in a last televised debate on Wednesday, before the second round poll on January 29. </s> Benoît Hamon, a former education minister, hammered ex-prime minister Manuel Valls to become the French Socialist Party’s candidate for the upcoming presidential election in April, pushing the already divided party sharply to the left.

Hamon comfortably beat Valls in the run-off vote to clinch the party’s nomination. Valls conceded defeat before the final tally was announced when after 60 percent of the votes counted showed Hamon had just over 58 percent to Valls’ 41 percent.

However, Hamon, 49, is not expected to perform quite as well in the presidential poll as the outgoing Socialist president Francois Hollande’s approval ratings continue to dip.

The election favorite, right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen, Francois Fillion of the Conservative party and centrist Emmanuel Macron all lead the polls over Hamon.

READ MORE: Marine Le Pen is now leading among French voters – poll

Hamon’s proposal for a universal monthly income for all citizens and calls to legalize cannabis made him by far the most left-leaning candidate out of the initial seven Socialist campaigners, and resulted in his subsequent popularity spike.

Hamon’s other proposals include a 32-hour working week, abolishing the labour law passed last year that made it easier to hire and fire employees, a tax on artificial intelligence and robots, increased public spending and a widening of the deficit to invest in renewable energies.

Even those who were not memberS of the Socialist Party were allowed to vote in the primary, resulting in a turnout higher than the previous week when 1.6 million people cast their vote, organizers said. However, the accuracy of number has been called into question after journalists at Le Monde and Buzzfeed reported that they were allowed to vote multiple times.

Hamon unceremoniously interrupted Valls just minutes into his concession speech to accept his victory, forcing television stations to interrupt their live feed of Valls to cut to the winner.

Some unimpressed voters took to social media to lambaste Hamon as rude, vengeful and “shameful” for the unfriendly move.

Others labeled it a “cordial misunderstanding” and lack of communication between party coordinators. </s> PARIS: French Socialists are set to choose their candidate for this year's presidential election on Sunday in a runoff pitting pro-business ex-premier Manuel Valls against hard-left lawmaker Benoit Hamon.

Hamon, who is often compared to British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, is favourite to beat Valls in the primary's head-to-head vote, but has little chance of winning the presidential race proper after five years of unpopular Socialist rule.

Opinion polls have shown neither men would garner enough support to reach the election's runoff in May, and were likely to come in a humiliating fifth place in the first round behind centrist Emmanuel Macron and left-winger Jean-Luc Melenchon.

The two frontrunners are conservative Francois Fillon, currently embroiled in a scandal over his wife's work as his parliamentary assistant, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

But although the Socialist candidate has little chance of succeeding President Francois Hollande at the Elysee palace, the winner of Sunday's vote will help decide the fortune of other candidates.

A victory by Hamon, who wants to give a "universal income" to all citizens at a cost of 350 billion euros and tax robots, would boost Macron's chances by pushing Valls' centre-left supporters into the former investment banker's arms.

Hamon, a former education minister, was kicked out of Valls' government in 2014 for differences on economic policy.

Macron was Valls' economy minister until he quit last year to launch his presidential campaign.

But he was not a party member, and has spurned the Socialist primaries that Valls and Hamon are contesting, having launched his own centrist political movement.

The latest polls show him breathing down the necks of Fillon and Le Pen. A Hamon win would also accelerate an influx of moderate Socialist lawmakers towards Macron, party members have told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

This refusal of the most pro-business wing of the party to rally behind a more radical leftist could hasten a break-up of the Socialist party, for decades one of the main political forces in France, analysts said.

"We now know these two different Lefts cannot govern together," Gerard Grunberg, a researcher and specialist of the Left at Sciences-Po university in Paris told France Info radio.

"It will be harder than ever before to cohabit. Which is why, it's true, we can say they have become irreconcilable." </s> Benoit Hamon holds a rose following the first results of the primary's second round on January 29, 2017

France's divided Socialists picked leftwinger Benoit Hamon as their presidential nominee Sunday, in the latest twist of a roller-coaster election race that has seen conservative frontrunner Francois Fillon engulfed in scandal.

Near definitive results from a Socialist primary runoff vote Sunday showed Hamon beating his centrist rival Manuel Valls, a former prime minister, with 58.72 percent of the vote in a clear victory for the left-wing of the party.

"Our country needs the left but a modern, innovative left turned towards the future," the 49-year-old Hamon told cheering supporters in a victory speech.

His triumph is another upset in the French poll race, with the former education minister and son of a dockworker viewed as an outsider only three weeks ago.

His nomination completes the list of major candidates for the two-round election in April and May after five years of unpopular Socialist rule.

Hamon's rivals include rightwing Republicans nominee Fillon, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, as well as centrist Emmanuel Macron who some analysts see as likely to benefit from the Socialists' tilt to the left.

Fillon, who was also deemed a long-shot until he clinched the Republicans nomination in November, has consistently been tipped to become France's next leader.

But his campaign has been in turmoil since Wednesday when a newspaper reported his wife had been paid around 500,000 euros ($540,000) over eight years for a suspected fake job as a parliamentary aide.

Those allegations have sparked a preliminary judicial inquiry, but there was more bad news for Fillon on Sunday.

Investigative website Mediapart and the Journal du Dimanche newspaper reported Fillon had used his parliamentary allowance to pocket up to 25,000 euros while working as a senator from 2005-2007.

A poll by Kantar Sofres-Onepoint published Sunday evening showed Fillon losing ground and Macron gaining.

The survey of 1,032 voters showed Le Pen leading the first round of the election with 25 percent, followed by Fillon with 21 percent and Macron on 20 percent.

While Fillon would easily beat Le Pen in a run-off, he would lose a duel with Macron, the poll showed.

- Fillon 'headwinds' -

In a defiant speech on Sunday in front of thousands of flag-waving supporters in Paris, Fillon said he would not let himself be "intimidated".

"On the road to victory, there will be some headwinds, there will be some squalls. We'll go straight ahead, straight to victory!," he declared.

Earlier, in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche, he denounced a "plot" against him and French democracy.

It remains unclear how the allegations will affect him or the outcome of the vote, which is being closely watched after the Brexit referendum in Britain and Donald Trump's triumph in the United States.

After five years of rule by Socialist President Francois Hollande, France is pessimistic about its economic prospects and fearful about terrorism and immigration.

Far-right leader Le Pen believes the nationalist sentiment that influenced British and American voters in 2016 will also carry her to the French presidency in what would be a profound shock for the continent.

But her National Front party is also embroiled in its own expenses scandal over money from the European parliament.

Valls, who conceded defeat and wished Hamon well on Sunday, took a parting shot at the far-right leader, saying that Socialists "reject Marine Le Pen's face being the face of France in the future."

- Macron hopes -

Hamon's victory and Fillon's woes could boost Macron, the youngest candidate in the race at 39 who quit Hollande's government last year to start his own political movement, En Marche (On the Move).

The former economy minister and investment banker has been drawing crowds of thousands to rallies around the country and polls show him creeping up on Fillon and Le Pen. Hamon has pitched himself as a man of fresh ideas for the left, promising to bring in universal basic income -- a state handout to all adults, irrespective of income -- to compensate for jobs lost to automation.

He also wants to levy taxes on robots, legalise cannabis, introduce stricter rules on chemical products, and introduce a new corps of state inspectors to combat discrimination.

Valls, prime minister under Hollande until December, had lampooned Hamon's programme as unworkable and labelled him a dreamer.

The bill for his universal income programme, envisaged for sometime after 2020, was estimated at a staggering 480 billion euros annually by an economic research unit at Sciences Po university in Paris. </s> Valls' throwing his support behind Macron is a potential blow to ruling Socialist Party candidate Benoit Hamon, who defeated Valls in the party's January nominating primary.

"Manuel Valls will soon call on voters to support his former rival Emmanuel Macron, and this, from as early as the first round of the election," Le Parisien said, citing a source in Valls' primary campaign.

Neither Valls nor Macron's campaign could be reached for comment. A source close to Valls told Reuters the Parisien report went too far because it was too early and Valls had not decided yet.

Socialist Party official Carlos Da Silva, who was Valls' substitute in the National Assembly while he was prime minister, said on his Twitter account the Parisien story was false. He did not provide further details.

Both Hamon and Macron were ministers in governments headed by Valls.

Recent opinion polls show Macron as the front-runner in the election and that he will go on to defeat far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff, while Hamon will be eliminated in the first round. </s> The 2019 NBA All-Star Game is in the books, and once again, the new format didn't disappoint. After taking the first half to show out and make highlights, things got serious even earlier than last season's edition. Team LeBron turned up the heat in the second half to flip a 20-point deficit into a 178-164 victory.

Warriors forward Kevin Durant was named All-Star Game MVP after finishing with 31 points and seven rebounds.

Giannis Antetokounmpo came out fired up, throwing down all sorts of slams in the opening few minutes. Then, later in the first half, he made the early play of the night, soaring to throw down an incredible bounce pass alley-oop from Steph Curry -- his first pick in the All-Star Draft. Giannis and his Bucks teammate Khris Middleton had Team Giannis out to a big lead, but they couldn't hold on.

Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson and Bradley Beal led the way in the third quarter, draining a barrage of 3-pointers to get Team LeBron back in the game. Then, the starters came back in to finish the job. LeBron finished with 19 points and eight rebounds in a captain's effort.

Giannis led all scorers with 38 points, while Middleton and Paul George added 20 points for Team Giannis. Here are some takeaways from an entertaining night.

K.D. turns it on to win MVP

Durant is no stranger to clutch buckets (see: the last two NBA Finals), and he knew just when to turn things on down the stretch on Sunday night. He got it going late as Team LeBron completed its comeback and put the game out of reach.

LeBron is still LeBron

Giannis started off the game like he was gunning for the MVP as his team built a big lead, but when it came down to crunch time it was LeBron James who once again took center stage. He hit a big 3-pointer from the corner and then threw down an alley-oop from Kyrie Irving to give Team LeBron a lead it wouldn't relinquish.

Next-level Giannis

You can point to the dunks, rebounds, assists or just the plain energy, but maybe the most interesting thing about Antetokounmpo's All-Star Game was that he knocked down two of his six 3-point attempts. This is obviously the next iteration of the Greek Freak's game, but this was the hint that it might come sooner than we thought. For a guy who can do things like this insane alley-oop from earlier in the game, that's a scary thought.

Giannis throwing it DOWN! 😯



Watch the #NBAAllStar Game with Chuck, KG & Greg Anthony - LIVE NOW on TBS!#PlayersOnly pic.twitter.com/cY5yRZS44i — NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 18, 2019

Steph can't shoot, but he can dunk?

Most expected Stephen Curry to put on a show for his home fans, but instead he had an uncharacteristically terrible shooting night, making only 4-of-17 3-point attempts as his team took the loss. As a silver lining, however, Curry threw down one of the best dunks of the night in the closing seconds -- a self-alley-oop reverse that got the crowd going.

LeBron to Wade, one more time

This will be the last time we get to see a Dwyane Wade-to-LeBron James alley-oop, so savor it. The old duo who won two championships together in Miami connected for a huge highlight in the third quarter.

Dirk goes out in style

If this is Dirk Nowitzki's last All-Star Game (and by all accounts it will be), he certainly went out on a good note. The 40-year-old made all three of his 3-pointers in the first half before exiting for the remainder of the game.

Recap all the All-Star Game action and highlights:
Yannick Jadot drops out in an effort to boost Benoît Hamon.