What happened to the French Socialist Party?

The Parti Socialiste, the party which won the French Presidency in 1981, in 1988, and again in 2012, has been reduced to less than 10% of the vote in 2017. Why?

See also the additional article (accessible via the related url hyperlink below): The crisis of the French Socialist Party: Does the PS still have a future?

The French Socialist Party (PS) suffered a dramatic fall in popularity in the 2017 French presidential and legislative elections, with a number of high profile members subsequently choosing to leave the party in the aftermath of the result. Marco Damiani traces the party’s decline and assesses whether the PS still has a future in the French party system.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: French election results: Macron will face Le Pen in second round head-to-head http://www.europeansources.info/record/french-election-results-macron-will-face-le-pen-in-second-round-head-to-head/

ESO: Key source: France Presidential Election 2017 http://www.europeansources.info/record/french-presidential-election-2017/

ESO: Background information: Leftist Hamon easily wins French Socialist primary runoff against former PM Valls / What Benoit Hamon's victory means for French presidential race http://www.europeansources.info/record/leftist-hamon-easily-wins-french-socialist-primary-runoff-against-former-pm-valls-what-benoit-hamons-victory-means-for-french-presidential-race/

Blog: LSE EuroppBlog, 20.07.17: The crisis of the French Socialist Party: Does the PS still have a future? http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2017/07/20/french-socialist-party-does-the-ps-still-have-a-future/

---