At the Socialist Party (PS), the pot has been boiling over for a few days. While Olivier Faure is campaigning to convince members to support him at the congress, the first round of which will take place on January 12, his new rival, the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, shoots his arrows, accusing the current first secretary to produce « fake news » or to want to manipulate the election by deleting certain new members. “Neo-Trumpism”answers Christophe Clergeau, close to Olivier Faure.
For the current socialist leader, who is entering his fifth year at the head of the PS, the moment of truth has come. Will he pay for the agreement signed by the PS with the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as his two rivals in congress accuse him of, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône) , Hélène Geoffroy, and Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol?
At the end of a four-month campaign started in September, the city councilor of Rouen succeeded in starting the majority obtained by Olivier Faure at the Villeurbanne congress in 2021. While the former deputy of François Hollande at the PS had been appointed to at the time by 73% of the vote against Hélène Geoffroy, her supporters are considering a score closer to 50% this time. Whatever the score, a second round will have to decide between it and the candidate who came in second position. “The risk would be ‘everything except Faure'”worries already the deputy of Essonne Jérôme Guedj.
The future of Nupes at stake
Hélène Geoffroy and her supporters have never hidden their satisfaction at seeing a third candidacy emerge with Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, which mechanically increases the chances of weakening or even eliminating the current incumbent. “You cannot embody a center left when you are in an alliance whose center of gravity is left populism”, slips the former first secretary of the PS Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, support of Hélène Geoffroy. The mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, carried by several former relatives of François Hollande within the PS, like Stéphane Le Foll, promised to slam the door of Nupes if she was elected.
Officially, there is no question for Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol of falling into camera grubs. The mayor of Rouen, formed within the PS alongside Laurent Fabius, promises that he will not ask Hélène Geoffroy to support him in the event of qualification for the second round. “We will call on supporters of the other two candidates to come and work with us”, he assures, seeing himself come second, and already reaching out to the mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, ” a friend “whom Olivier Faure has promised to name number two in the party if he is elected.
You have 62.77% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.