The socialist president of the Occitanie region brought together nearly 2,000 people this Saturday in the small town of Aude, showcasing a “left-wing majority” which aims to broaden its electorate, by addressing the working classes who have fled the PS, but also to the rural world.
“Raphaël, Valérie, François, Karim, join me to show that we are a team!” says Carole Delga at the end of her speech. The sun is starting to set over the large wooded park of Bram, the small town in Aude between Toulouse and Carcassonne where the socialist president of the Occitanie region brought together a little more than 2,000 people this Saturday. Raphaël Glucksmann, François Hollande, Karim Bouamrane, Valérie Rabault, and all the guests of the 2024 edition of these “meetings of the left” that she organizes each year return to the stage as the Marseillaise sounds. Except Bernard Cazeneuve, who has already left. Dressed in a red hunting jacket, the former Prime Minister of François Hollande, who is expected on Sunday with François Bayrou at the Modem back-to-school university, made a notable visit this year to Bram, even though he was not was only present by videoconference in 2023.
For Carole Delga, these meetings ring “the awakening of the left of courage, of the left of government”. She declares that she is wary of “sleeve effects on stage which have never transformed people’s lives”. Before her, Raphaël Glucksmann already invited people to abandon “dais Leninism” specifying that this was not the prerogative of La France insoumise. “Quoting Rosa Luxembourg three times while playing more to the left than me, you die, it can work in an AG but not in the population”warns the leader of Place publique. The joint interview between the MEP and the regional president on stage was the piece de resistance of the day, just after the unmissable cassoulet served to more than 2,300 guests under barnums. The exchange even overshadowed the intervention of François Hollande, who came to promote his latest book. The former President of the Republic was discussing international politics and the importance of the American elections on the future of Europe in front of an audience slightly dozing during digestion when the former head of the list in the European elections made his appearance, sparking a small movement of crowds. “Carole Delga plans everything, even entrances and exits”then joked François Hollande, interrupting his speech to welcome the star guest.
On stage, Carole Delga applauds the 13% achieved by the head of the list chosen by the PS for the European elections. “Voters have regained hope, we are a left-wing majority”. Modestly, Raphaël Glucksmann retorts that it is not only a question of “rebalance the left”but it is also necessary “broaden your base”. The leader of Place Publique does not fear offending his audience by reporting having crossed paths during his campaign “voters who can no longer undermine the left”. How can we win back this popular electorate which has turned to the National Rally? The nagging question crossed all the debates in Bram.
For Raphaël Glucksmann, “we must answer the questions that Europe has not addressed until now”. Housing and energy are the two priority areas in his eyes, as they impact purchasing power. Carole Delga, for her part, calls for a reform of the CAP so that the aid is no longer useful “agricultural gigantism”but small farmers like Jérôme Bayle. The breeder who took the lead in the agricultural protest last winter in Haute-Garonne shared the stage of one of the morning’s workshops alongside Karim Bouamrane, mayor of Saint-Ouen. Raphaël Glucksmann approves and denounces “the immense trick of capturing agricultural anger” by the right and the European extreme right “who defend industrialists, not farmers”.
The president of the Occitanie region wants to address as a priority rural France which feels “despised by elites because she likes barbecues and hunting”but without forgetting the France of the suburbs and the teachers who are even more sorely lacking in the high schools of 93. Then, Carole Delga improvises a great historical flight with Spanish accents on the Republic “which we saw fall on the other side of the Pyrenees”. Before concluding, with a touch of optimism: “France no longer believes in the providential man and the French have said no to an heiress.” For Raphaël Glucksmann, if there was a winner in the last legislative elections, it was “the Republican Front of the second round which showed that the Republic was still producing antibodies”. But be careful, warns the MEP, “It was a single-shot pistol.”
