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		</div><p>Benoit Hamon will be the Socialist Party candidate in France&#8217;s presidential election after beating ex-prime minister Manuel Valls in a primary run-off vote.</p>
<p>Mr Hamon&#8217;s win sends the divided Socialists, weakened by the unpopularity of outgoing President Francois Hollande, into a tough presidential battle behind a candidate with limited government experience and hard-left politics that could alienate some centre-left Socialist voters.</p>
<p>With ballots counted at 60% of polling stations, Mr Hamon had almost 59% of the vote to Mr Valls&#8217;s 41%.</p>
<p>Mr Valls immediately conceded defeat in the face of the result that appeared like a clear condemnation of both his and Mr Hollande&#8217;s polices.</p>
<p>With the ruling party having settled on its candidate, the race for the presidential Elysee Palace begins in earnest, although the outcome of the two-round general election vote in April and May looks increasingly uncertain.</p>
<p>Leading conservative candidate Francois Fillon, who also previously served as prime minister, was rocked during the past week by allegations that his wife, Penelope, held a fake but handsomely paid job as a parliamentary aide. Financial prosecutors are investigating.</p>
<p>At a campaign rally in Paris on Sunday &#8211; where a boisterous crowd gave Penelope Fillon a standing ovation and chanted her name, Mr Fillon said, &#8220;We have nothing to hide.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Through Penelope they are trying to break me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I will never forgive those who chose to throw us to the wolves.&#8221;</p>
<p>A priority for Mr Hamon, a 49-year-old former junior minister and, briefly, education minister, will be to rally the Socialists, split ideologically and wounded by Mr Hollande&#8217;s five-year tenure as president.</p>
<p>The party is also squeezed by rivals on both flanks. Fiery far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and centrist Emmanuel Macron, Mr Hollande&#8217;s former economics minister, are both making hay by appealing to disappointed Socialist voters.</p>
<p>Early polling has suggested the Socialist candidate will struggle to advance to the presidential run-off in May, where far-right leader Marine Le Pen could be waiting, campaigning on anti-Europe, anti-immigration and anti-Islam themes.</p>
<p>The turnout on Sunday, at around 2 million voters, was more robust than in the primary&#8217;s first round of voting a week ago, but still suggested a lack of enthusiasm among the 44-million French electorate.<br />
Mr Hamon was not as tainted as Mr Valls by Mr Hollande&#8217;s unpopularity because he rebelled and quit the government in 2014.</p>
<p>Mr Valls served as Mr Hollande&#8217;s prime minister for more than two years until last December, when it became clear the president could not win a second term. But having to defend the government&#8217;s economic policies and labour reforms against Mr Hamon proved an uphill fight.</p>
<p>Mr Hamon&#8217;s signature proposal for a 750 euro &#8220;universal income&#8221; that would be gradually granted to all adults also proved a campaign masterstroke.</p>
<p>It grabbed headlines and underpinned his surprise success in the primary&#8217;s two rounds of voting, first against six opponents and then against Mr Valls in the run-off.</p>
<p>Sharply criticised by Mr Valls as unrealistic and ruinous, the no-strings-attached payments would cushion the French in an increasingly automated future, as machines take their jobs, according to Mr Hamon.</p>
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