Being dubbed the "Jeremy Corbyn of the French-left"[2] and "reinventing the French left",[3] Hamon ran on ideas accused of being "far-out" such as legalising cannabis, taxing automation and introducing a universal basic income.

[2] Hamon eventually won in a run-off against former Prime Minister Manuel Valls and campaigned on similar ideals in the general election, though only gathering 6.36 per cent of votes.

After failing to win any seats in the 2019 European elections, Hamon said that he would step back to reflect on his and his movement's political future.

[4] Hamon was born 26 June 1967 in Saint-Renan, Finistère to an engineer father who worked for Naval Group in Brest and a secretary mother.

[5] Hamon lived in Brest until 1980, moving with his parents to Dakar, Senegal where he attended a Cours Sainte Marie de Hann private school.

[9] After obtaining a degree in history at the University of Western Brittany in 1991,[10] Hamon started his parliamentary career as an assistant to Socialist Party deputy Pierre Brana at the age of 24.

[11] Hamon had been taking part in student protests since the age of 19, starting his involvement in politics during a demonstration against Alain Devaquet's 1986-1987 education reform.

[15] Following the revelation that then-president François Mitterrand and former high ranking Vichy member René Bousquet had a friendship, Hamon resigned as the leader of the Young Socialists.

The caucus was able to gathered 17% of votes at the Dijon Congress, the second most behind Francois Hollande, who was eventually elected the first secretary of the Socialist Party.

Hamon was a campaigner for a "no" vote in the 2005 European Constitution referendum and was the national secretary for the PES Group, elected in 2005 and resigning in 2007 after the Socialist Party's support of the Lisbon Treaty despite promises made during the Le Mans Congress.

Critical of the social-liberal politics of Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Hamon represented the left-wing and green side of the Socialist Party during the primary.

[28][29] Hamon is also very critical of the neoliberal "myth of infinite economic growth", which he blames for "destroying the planet" and argues is a "quasi-religion" among politicians, saying:[30] "There is an urgency to change now our way to produce and consume.