The famous currents of the Socialist Party (PS) are resurfacing, and with them the internal debates. Two candidates for the post of first secretary, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and Hélène Geoffroy, will face Olivier Faure at the next party congress in January 2023, in an attempt to wrest his post from him. The first round of voting by members will take place on January 12, and a second vote will decide between the two remaining candidates on January 19, before the congress, on the 25th, in Marseille.
At the heart of this 80e congress, which all consider strategic, is played out the agreement of the New popular ecological and social union (Nupes) between rebellious France, the PS, the ecologists and the communists, which made it possible to keep a group of thirty-two socialist deputies in the Assembly, despite the historic failure in the presidential election of the party’s candidate, Anne Hidalgo (1.7%).
While the party’s national council met on Saturday, November 26, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, mayor of Rouen, tabled an orientation text, “Refoundations”, supported by relatives of the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and the President of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga. He wants to be a “third way” between the outgoing leadership and supporters of former President François Hollande. “We are the only novelty (…) the only way capable of uniting all socialists”said the candidate.
He advocated “an undiluted PS in an agreement, but engine of the left”claiming that the Nupes “deserves neither excess of indignity nor excess of honor. This political framework is useful, but it is not sufficient or sustainable to win”. He defended a “humanist left”, “which strengthens and prolongs European construction” – the terms of which are a source of major disagreement in the Nupes – and “who does not confuse radicalism with excess”thus tackling La France insoumise.
« Effacement »
Hélène Geoffroy, mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône), supported by the PS elephants, like the mayor of Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll, submitted her text “Refound, gather, govern”. The one who has been denouncing for four years “erasure” of the party promised that it would suspend the participation of the PS in Nupes, and would reintegrate, in the event of victory, all the socialists suspended for having refused to take part in the alliance to be built around La France insoumise.
“I hear that the Greens want to cultivate their garden and that Fabien Roussel”, the boss of the communists, also marks his difference, she underlined. And to wonder: “Are we the only ones who would be subservient to La France insoumise? »
Olivier Faure, who defends the text “To win”, meanwhile pleaded for the prosecution of Nupes. “How we build the gathering (…) if we decide to leave the only place where the left speaks? », he asked. For him, “the reason why we are better heard is that we have said that we belong to the left, unfailingly”most “that does not mean that we share everything that is said on the left”denying having lost any autonomy since the agreement with LFI, as the Geoffroy camp accuses him of.
Faced with Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, he admitted that “the differences were more subtle” and asked: “Where are we, when we are neither Nupes nor not Nupes? »inviting him to clarify his position and saying “ready to synthesize” with its competitor.
Seven general contributions had been presented during a national council in early November, but only those of these three candidates were submitted. Olivier Faure managed to rally to him the authors of four contributions, including feminists and young socialists, as well as the mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland. At the last congress, in 2021 in Villeurbanne (Rhône), Olivier Faure won with 72% of the vote against Hélène Geoffroy (28%).