Génération.s is a French political party created on 1 July 2017 by Benoît Hamon who, according to its founder, aims to "Refound and gather the left" in France. Sometimes rendered Génération-s or Génération·s, it was formerly named Mouvement du 1er Juillet, and has also been known by the short name M1717. Its foundation follows the sharp decline of the Socialist Party in the 2017 presidential election, where Benoît Hamon was a candidate, and the legislative elections, in which he lost his seat as a deputy. The movement presents itself as an initiative to assemble the forces of the left in France. The political ideologies it supports are European federalism, ecosocialism, and democratic socialism.
History
According to its founder, the movement, presented as "a totally open initiative", aims to "go beyond the party framework" and "converge". Hamon says he wants to gather the left before the next 2019 European elections and the municipal elections in 2020. He wants a big meeting of organisation and organisation for the fall of 2017 before the holding of "Estates General of all the left to make a common house for the municipal elections of 2020". Moreover, it is also a question of perpetuating the ideas developed by the PS candidate during the presidential campaign, such as the universal income, which were abandoned by the party during the legislative campaign. According to Hamon, 11,000 people participated in the creation of the movement. The ecologists Cécile Duflot and Yannick Jadot, the essayist Raphaël Glucksmann, the journalist Edwy Plenel and the economist Thomas Porcher supported him in this process. From the first days of the movement, deputy Régis Juanico, the former minister Dominique Bertinotti, the MEP Guillaume Balas and former deputies Barbara Romagnan and Mathieu Hanotin joined him. In September 2017, the movement was invited by organisers to participate in the Fête de l'Humanité, where it had its own stand besides that of Benoît Hamon. On the September 23rd, the movement took part in the march of 23 September 2017 against the "social Coup d'état" and the policies of Emmanuel Macron, a political demonstration organised by La France Insoumise. Hamon appeared publicly at the head of the procession alongside Jean-Luc Mélenchon. On 2 October 2017, Laura Slimani, former president of the Young Socialists, left the Socialist Party to join the movement. On 10 October 2017, a dozen regional councilors including Benoît Hamon left the socialist group of the regional council of Île-de-France to form a new group of about twenty advisers associating ecologists, called "Ecologist and Social Alternative". The same day, Pascal Cherki left the Socialist Party to join M1717. On 2 December 2017, new name "Génération.s" was chosen during the party's founding congress in Le Mans. During the congress, Hamon announced that he was preparing European-wide lists for the European Parliament election of 2019 with Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek minister of finance and leader of DieM25. In January 2018, the movement claimed to have reached 50,000 members and elected an interim direction.
