She was to become deputy national secretary, or number 2 of the PS, behind Olivier Faure. Finally, Johanna Rolland, mayor of Nantes, will share this role with the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, named, like her, first deputy secretary, a kind of number 2 bis. This is what emerges from the agreement ratified on Saturday at the end of the national congress of the Socialist Party in Marseille.
Aged 43, Johanna Rolland is one of the closest supporters of first secretary Olivier Faure, defender of the left alliance Nupes. “We cannot be for Nupes and at the same time against Nupes”, she considered a few days ago about Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol who, for his part, expressed his reluctance vis-à-vis the rapprochement with France rebellious. “The spirit of responsibility led us to the rally in clarity”, estimated the Nantes woman on Saturday evening.
Elected mayor at just 34 years old, Johanna Rolland has been leading the city of Nantes and its metropolis since 2014 within plural majorities including, in particular, several elected environmentalists. A sometimes complicated hitch with similarities to the new direction of the PS. This supporter of “social-ecology”, to whom Emmanuel Macron had proposed a great ministry in 2020, is also the President of Urban France, an association bringing together nearly 2,000 major cities and communities. She co-led Anne Hidalgo’s campaign in the 2022 presidential election.
“I am not one of those who desert in the face of difficulty”, explained Johanna Rolland, who intends to “contribute to the reconstruction” of the PS. This assumption of national responsibility is strongly criticized by Nantes opposition politicians on the right who fear that the city councilor is less involved in his city. It is not unanimous either within the socialists of Loire-Atlantique. The militants of this department had voted last week in favor of the project defended by Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, placing the Faure-Rolland tandem in the minority.