Within the Socialist Party, divided by significant strategic and political differences, the Bernard Cazeneuve option is divisive, with one party arguing for a green light for the man who left the party to denounce its alliance with La France Insoumise.
The Socialist Party (PS) ruled out unconditional support for a government led by former Socialist Bernard Cazeneuve on Tuesday evening, weakening this option considered by Emmanuel Macron, who is still looking for a tenant for Matignon. The head of state, who continued his consultations on Tuesday, is focusing on two hypotheses: one from the centre-left, the former Prime Minister of François Hollande Bernard Cazeneuve, and the other from the right, with the president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand.
Within the PS, still divided by significant strategic and political differences, the Cazeneuve option is divisive, with one party arguing for a green light for the man who left the party to denounce its alliance with La France Insoumise.
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The Lucie Castets hypothesis
The management wanted to continue to defend the candidate of the New Popular Front, Lucie Castets, rejected by Emmanuel Macron, and not to position itself on a name but on a project. Internal opponents of First Secretary Olivier Faure had demanded a vote in the afternoon so that the PS “clearly announces that he will not censor a cohabitation government led by Bernard Cazeneuve”if its program was based on that of the New Popular Front.
The leadership did not want a vote on this subject, preferring to submit to the vote a resolution presenting the 10 points on which the PS will not compromise and will ask the future prime minister to commit, such as the repeal of the pension reform, the unemployment insurance reform and the immigration law, the increase in the minimum wage, the green ISF, the taxation of super-profits, measures for schools and health, housing, etc.
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The resolution also indicates that the PS continues to demand the appointment of Lucie Castets as prime minister. “Otherwise, we will not participate in any government that is not a government of the New Popular Front.”the text specifies.
Party split in two
After four hours of discussions within the National Bureau, opponents proposed an amendment to this resolution, asking not to censure a priori a Cazeneuve government. But the National Bureau rejected it by 53.5% against 46.5%.
The mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, both on a line hostile to the agreements with LFI and known to be more open to compromises with other political forces, asked that Olivier Faure and the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud, who spoke in the afternoon with Emmanuel Macron, could assure them that the PS would not censure a government of Bernard Cazeneuve, which relies on the NFP program.
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“We did not win the vote”Hélène Geoffroy admitted to AFP, “but that does not mean that the other side would automatically censor it”However, she stressed that the PS was split in two, including within the group of deputies.
She also announced a step forward, as the deputies will work on “concrete proposals to present to the other political forces in the Assembly”as part of compromises to be found, she explained.
“The background before the casting”
The socialist deputies, who met on Tuesday morning, for their part once again adopted the same line: “The substance before the casting. We will censor any extension of Macronism”it was indicated within the group.
For a close friend of Olivier Faure, “The idea of voting to say whether we would censure this or that person without knowing what their program and government would be, does not make sense. This vote is designed to crack the PS and the NFP.”and it is “exploiting Bernard Cazeneuve for internal objectives”.
