Socialist activists validated their party’s autonomous list for the next European elections on Thursday evening, thus imitating their allies from the PCF and EELV, to the great dismay of LFI which wants a union of the left for this deadline.
The outcome of the vote, organized from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the party sections, was in no doubt: the strategic orientation text on which the activists voted was unanimously adopted last month by the executives of the Socialist Party, united in a national office.
“On Thursday October 5, at 11:30 p.m., on more than 60% of the ballots counted, the two texts were adopted by more than 90% of the votes,” indicated the PS in a press release sent to AFP. Socialist activists also voted to ratify the programmatic content of the European project. The latter can still be subject to amendments by the federations.
No “carp and rabbit” alliance
The three currents of the party (that of the first secretary Olivier Faure, majority and pro-Nupes, and those of his opponents Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and Hélène Geoffroy, hostile to the Nupes) managed to agree on the strategy, with the editorial of a compromise.
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the mayor of Rouen, saw it as a victory. The PS “has joined the line that we defended: a pro-European left, clear on Ukraine, without an alliance of carp and rabbit”, a reference to the union with LFI, he estimated.
“No one has joined you”, Olivier Faure replied, asking him to “stop betraying collective decisions by giving them your interpretations which contradict all our debates”. A “clan war”, then tackled Jean -Luc Mélenchon, who accuses the PS of “making the entire left pay” the price of its internal syntheses.
In a letter sent this week to his Nupes partners, Olivier Faure definitively closed the door – barely ajar – of the common list for the 2024 European elections. “We have expressed our availability for a debate, projects against projects (…) This exchange will not take place due to lack of fighters. We take note of this,” he wrote, explaining that he had chosen “the path” of “addition”.
Glucksmann “natural candidate”
“I find it difficult to understand the prerequisite set by the Socialist Party to first draw up separate lists before discussing the program, when they themselves affirm that it is the program which must guide the electoral strategy” , reacted the leader of LFI MEPs Manon Aubry, who is pushing for a common list with the Europeans.
The head of the PS list and its composition should not be decided before the end of the year.
MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, leader of the small political movement Place publique, is among the favorites to take the lead in the socialist list, as he did in 2019.
“We are not saying it yet at this stage but it is not a great mystery that he will be the natural candidate,” a socialist official recently confided.
“We can lead battles in the European Parliament together on ecological and social issues but we do not have a sufficiently close vision to lead a common list,” declared the person concerned Thursday evening on the set of Quotidien, in response to criticism of the Insoumis on disunity.
On the environmental side, the list will be led by MEP Marie Toussaint, who distinguished herself by initiating with several NGOs “the Case of the Century”, a legal action against France’s climate inaction. Party members up to date with contributions – 11,106 in July – voted 86% for the independent list.
For the communists, Léon Deffontaines, Fabien Roussel’s spokesperson in the 2022 presidential election, will be at the head of the list.
The final results of Thursday’s vote by socialist activists will be known on Friday. They will be officially ratified during a convention on Saturday October 14.