This time, I promise, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, “It’s over!” » Words from Carole Delga! During her “Meetings of the Left”, in Bram, Saturday October 28, the president of the Occitanie Region called on the reformist left to cut the cord with cousin Insoumis to hope to win in 2027. Around her, everything what the pink house has of self-proclaimed social democrats – François Hollande, Bernard Cazeneuve, Raphaël Glucksmann, Valérie Rabault, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol… – is a chorus.
Rebelote a few days later, in Seine-Saint-Denis, on the land of Karim Bouamrane, the mayor of Saint-Ouen whose name circulated for Matignon this summer – in truth, a communication operation hatched by the former councilor of François Hollande and friend, Gaspard Gantzer. Insufficient to propel the Dionysian rue de Varennes, but sufficient to create a hype around him.
Still unknown to the general public a few months ago, the city councilor whose town hosted the athletes’ village during the Olympic Games had the distinct privilege of appearing on the front page of New-York Times in April. As for the German daily The worldhe actually nicknamed it « Barack Obama de la Seine ».
Enough to get to the head of the person concerned… and give them ideas. Thursday October 3, at the Bauer stadium in Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane decided to launch his own social-democratic store, « France is humane and strong.” In front of some 4,000 people gathered in the main platform of the enclosure, including Hollande, Glucksmann and Delga, the mayor encouraged his political family to write a new page of social democracy without the Rebels. “We must not be in incantation, in sterile rupture », he scratched.
A Faustian pact with La France insoumise
“Words… words… », mocks a party executive to the tune of Dalida. How many times has he heard the divorce from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s movement announced in recent months? It became a « running gag », deplores someone close to Bernard Cazeneuve. A time anticipated for Matignon this summer, the former Prime Minister of François Hollande is one of the rare figures of the social democratic left to have spoken out against this Faustian pact with La France insoumise since the constitution of Nupes in 2022.
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At the time, the party lined up behind this electoral alliance strategy defended by Olivier Faure. In terms of alliance, a leonine pact for the benefit of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s movement which, as the first political force on the left, is justified in imposing its views. So its radicality. On the menu, “messiness”, provocations, excesses. For a year and a half, the socialists, embarrassed at the edges, condemned with lip service. Then comes October 7. The positions of La France insoumise provoke indignation and set the left on fire. “This time, it’s the last straw!” » then a figure from the old house near the JDD. A moratorium on the participation of the PS in Nupes is even established.
Alas, the dissolution of the National Assembly will get rid of good resolutions. Anxious to preserve its electoral positions during the legislative elections, the PS is diving back. Like a junkie seeking to justify his relapse, the rose party brandishes a lame argument to convince itself of the legitimacy of the New Popular Front (NFP): the hierarchy of perils. At the top, the arrival at Matignon of Jordan Bardella. The agreement fizzled out, but it allowed the PS to save constituencies.
A contested first secretary
Completely unexpectedly, the left even found itself in a position to reconnect with power. This was without counting the rejection of the Cazeneuve option by a PS leadership subservient to the Insoumis. In recent weeks, criticism of the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, has increased.
His internal opponents cherish the hope of putting him in the minority at the next party congress, theoretically at the beginning of 2025. Unless the boss of the roses manages to push him away sine theas some fear. Olivier Faure senses the danger. After Raphaël Glucksmann’s political return to Gironde last weekend, during which the essayist outlined a path without LFI, the first secretary also claimed the label of “social democrat”.
“Independently of Faure, what do you think these good people will do in the event of another dissolution of the Assembly? »asks a PS maverick. Answer : “They will go to waste because we do not have the means to present independent applications. » And to ironize about this flowering of social democratic initiatives: “We are in the era of self-employed people. Everyone wants their own brand. Even Philippe Brin has his own! [Le député de l’Eure a lancé un mouvement début septembre, NDLR] »
A mythological alliance with the far left
The fact remains that electoral interests are not the only ones at stake in this affair. Indeed, the PS is also the prisoner of a mythological alliance with the far left. “And it’s been going on since the Revolution!” »smiles an elephant. The latter may turn the problem around in all directions, but changing the method of voting for deputies in the Assembly is the only way to break free from this alliance: “The establishment of proportional representation is the only way to allow socialists to survive a division of the left. »
During his general policy declaration on October 1, Prime Minister Michel Barnier said he was ready to “a reflection without ideology” on this ballot. Which, in political language, means everything and nothing. In short, proportional representation is not for tomorrow, nor is the emancipation of the socialist party.
