MBut where has the reformist left gone, the one that since François Mitterrand’s victory in 1981 boasted of having learned to assume the exercise of power? Since the double electoral sequence of the spring, it seems to have disappeared from the radar, victim of two consecutive shocks which have deeply destructured it.
The first was struck by Emmanuel Macron, who managed to get himself re-elected on April 10 by showering the hope of the Socialist Party (PS) and the Les Républicains (LR) party to exist again on a resurgence of the left cleavage – right. Between them, these former “big” government parties totaled only 6.5% of the votes cast. The palm of failure went to Anne Hidalgo who, with 1.7% of the vote, was unable to stem the haemorrhage of socialist voters towards Emmanuel Macron. “The electorate of the President of the Republic was built on that of François Hollandeconfirms political scientist Martial Foucault, director of the Center for the Study of French Political Life at Sciences Po (Cevipof). 43.4% of François Hollande’s voters in 2012 voted for the current President of the Republic five years ago and a comparable proportion (41.7%) made the same choice in 2022. In seven out of ten cases, it is the same people. »
The second thrust was carried by the “rebellious” Jean-Luc Mélenchon who, during the June legislative elections, set himself up as a unifier of the non-macronist left on an anti-liberal line which completed the fracture of the PS . Since then, the reformist wing has been dormant, both deprived of incarnation and lacking in momentum. Between a bitter look at the new five-year term and critical support for Emmanuel Macron, she seeks to escape lasting marginalization by noting that no part of the family has emerged unscathed from the adventure.
France fallen to the right
In the National Assembly, the twenty-seven socialist deputies elected under the label of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) fail to distance themselves from the radicalism of La France insoumise (LFI). Within the Renaissance presidential party, the left wing, by dint of playing the overtaking card, threatens to be marginalized by the right wing which, on the contrary, is asserting itself.
The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, may have been very close to the PS, the ambient discourse since the re-election of Emmanuel Macron is that of a France that has fallen to the right, calling for an alliance in good and due form between Renaissance and LR. It is so true that Edouard Philippe, Bruno Le Maire and Gérald Darmanin, the three majority figures already in competition for the 2027 presidential election, have the particularity of having all once belonged to Nicolas Sarkozy’s party.
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