Why go through the trouble of being humiliated in a conclusive election when you can be eliminated in the first round of voting by a neo-fascist crackpot?
A wise move for the Socialists would be to put Strauss-Kahn in charge, as he would get support from the Centrists. As for the extreme-left, it has shrunk to the point it doesn’t really matter anymore how they vote, as long as they don’t vote for the Right.