The French franc holds little pain for socialist (4-6)
I believe the answer is:
left-winger
'for socialist' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'the french franc holds little pain' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'franc' becomes 'fr' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'holds' is an insertion indicator.
'little pain' becomes 'twinge' (I've seen this before).
'fr' going around 'twinge' is 'ftwinger'.
'le'+'ftwinger'='LEFT-WINGER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for left-winger that I've seen is " Socialist".)