Ithey are coming back! The elephants of the Socialist Party (PS), ex-Dutch for the most part, who oppose the alliance with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, have been leading an all-out offensive since the crash of Anne Hidalgo in the presidential election. Several initiatives aimed at resuscitating a moribund social democracy have overlapped this summer. The mayor of Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll, brought together 200 activists on July 16 to reflect on the outlines of a new left-wing federation, which would not be “nor in the displayed radicalism of LFI [La France insoumise], nor behind macronism”.
For his part, former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who left the PS since the latter marched with the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), is preparing a manifesto for a left “social democrat, republican, humanist and ecological”. He brought together 300 people on July 11 on the Zoom application to work on it. In an email sent to his friends, he is sorry for the “great dismay” that the agreement between the PS and LFI arouses among activists. “The party of Jaurès, Blum and Mitterrand gave the impression of turning its back on its values and its history, he writes. We must offer those who doubt a path of refoundation. » With the blessing of François Hollande, who wisely prefers to keep quiet for the moment.
“The Tour of Small Meetings”
These great maneuvers are also closely followed by the former first secretary of the PS, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, who, as in the great hours of “Solférino”, is agitated and plots, makes the link between each other. On September 17, he will take part in a “Social Democratic Seminar” in Cergy-Pontoise (Val-d’Oise) alongside the former boss of Release Laurent Joffrin and the former mayor of Grenoble Michel Destot. Just like at “states general of the left”convened, on September 24, by the president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, before a meeting, on October 10, of clubs and magazines not subservient to Nupes who want to participate in the refoundation. “There was the round of banquets during the IIIe Republic. There, it’s the tour of small meetings “summarizes the unalterable “Camba”.
As the post-Macron period has begun, these grognards, none of whom have succeeded in imposing anything in five years, suffering alternately the victory of Macronism and the collapse of the PS, are convinced that there is now an enlarged political space between the president, who would have no other choice but to govern on the right, and the Nupes, which they do not believe in the sustainability, convinced that the alliance will eventually explode according to the parliamentary debates . They are also betting that Macron voters from the left will not find themselves in the rise of an Edouard Philippe or a Bruno Le Maire, and will feel orphaned.
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