Will the members follow the advice of the elected Socialist Party? They are called to vote on January 12 and 19 to designate the next first secretary of the party, before a Congress to be held at the end of January in Marseille. And to guide them in their choice, forty-five parliamentarians signed on Tuesday a forum published in the JDD in support of Oliver Faure, candidate for his re-election.
Members therefore have the choice between Olivier Faure, craftsman of the left alliance Nupes, but also the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, who are more or less opposed to this agreement. . For the forty-five parliamentarians, including the deputies Boris Vallaud, Jérôme Guedj, Guillaume Garot, the senators Victorin Lurel or Rémi Cardon, “there are only two ways: either the Socialist Party continues on the path of rebuilding a party engaged in the union of the left reinitiated since 2018, either it decides to move away from it or to threaten this fragile but necessary process”.
“The only one able to allow the left to win tomorrow”
“You shouldn’t be mistaken: some people forget that if the Marseille congress can be held, it’s because we still exist. Logically, without this alliance [la Nupes], the Socialist Party would have been erased from the National Assembly, as illustrated by the score of the few dissidents”, support the parliamentarians. According to them, “this burst and the maintenance of a parliamentary group in the Assembly must be credited to the outgoing leadership of the Socialist Party led by Olivier Faure”.
The signatories say they are “aware of the responsibility that is ours in supporting this strategic line, which is also a crest line, because the path to union is perilous and cannot be translated into renunciations of our fundamental political orientations”. . But for them, Olivier Faure “is the only one able to allow the left to win tomorrow and to carry the project of a social and ecological Republic”.
The outgoing first secretary, accused by his detractors of having “erased the PS” and of being “subject to the rebellious”, is also supported by many mayors, including Johanna Rolland, mayor of Nantes, who will become number 2 of the left in case of victory. According to those around him, he also has the support of a majority of federal prime ministers.