Why François Rebsamen is not really a leftist take

REshuffle – Socialist mayor of Dijon for 22 years. President of the PS group in the Senate for three years. Five years at the head of the National Federation of Socialist Elected Officials. And even Minister of Labor of François Hollande in the government of Manuel Valls (who ultimately has the same background as him). These lines from the CV of François Rebsamen, appointed Minister of Regional Planning this Monday, December 23, make him in a way the counterpart of Rachida Dati.

However, it is difficult to see in his appointment a real left-wing move. The signal also closely resembles the one sent by Michel Barnier three months ago, when he made Didier Migaud his Minister of Justice. The symbol is perhaps even less strong regarding François Rebsamen, 73 years old. And as proof, we will have to look for a long time for a reaction from an executive of the New Popular Front who would be delighted with this appointment.

Rebsamen calls to vote for Macron rather than Hamon

This is because the divorce between the former mayor of Dijon (who left office in the fall to make way for a new generation) and the Socialist Party is not new. We can date it back to the beginning of 2017, after François Hollande gave up the presidential election and Manuel Valls was beaten by Benoît Hamon in the primary. Rather than supporting the socialist candidate, François Rebsamen signs – like a few other left-wing elected officials – a platform to call for Emmanuel Macron to vote rather than for the choice of socialist sympathizers.

Still a member of the PS, he then supported his former government colleague Stéphane Le Foll during the congress won by Olivier Faure in 2018. In 2021, he deplored the alliances led by the socialists with the ecologists for the regional elections and denounced the choice of Audrey Pulvar as head of the list in Île-de-France. In line with this, he has little taste for Anne Hidalgo's candidacy for the 2022 presidential election. “The PS is a sectarian party”he thunders in Liberationwhere he announced his resignation from the National Federation of Socialist Elected Representatives.

Rebsamen's party in the Macronist coalition

The break is then complete and his call to vote for Emmanuel Macron in 2022 no longer surprises anyone. A few days after the second round, he even founded a new party (The Progressive Federation) which joined the presidential coalition for the 2022 legislative elections. Christelle Decodts and Benoît Bordat were elected deputies under his colors, and the mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois , Olivier Klein, is appointed Minister of the City in the government of Élisabeth Borne. In 2024 again, rather than moving closer to the New Popular Front, he calls for the creation of a large central bloc. “ We cannot, I tell all my former comrades, sincere democrats and social democrats, we cannot sacrifice values ​​to save a few seats of deputies, this is my cry from the heart”, he said in mid-June on Franceinfo.

There is no doubt that François Rebsamen is, like Olivier Dussopt or Agnès Pannier-Runacher, a representative of the left wing of Macronie. That it allows (in the same way as the return of Manuel Valls) a part of the sympathizers or left-wing deputies to feel represented in the government of François Bayrou is, however, much less certain. The formula of his best Burgundian enemy François Patriat in The World is also revealing. “ Who does this move in the Hemicycle? “, wonders the leader of the Macronist senators, a former socialist. Implied, no one.

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