Gilles Candar, historian specializing in French lefts, believes that the PS revives tears, numerous in its history and will not be able to abstract from electoral realities and the absence of political space for a disunited left.
words collected by Julie Carriat
President of the Society of Jauresian Studies and Historian specializing in French lefts, Gilles Candar returns to the internal crisis that the Socialist Party is going through, while his congress aimed at electing a new management was to open on Friday January 27 in Marseille .
What is the Marseille Congress the sign?
This congress is a sign of a lamentable spectacle, not because the majorities are short, but because the Socialist Party (PS) reconnects with bad habits, which Jaurès called the “miseries” of the PS. The Reims Congress (2008), between Ségolène Royal and Martine Aubry, and the Rennes Congress (1990), between Lionel Jospin and Laurent Fabius, were moments of heartbreak and reciprocal accusations. But beyond the return of these bad habits in the face of a tight score, we are witnessing a crisis that affects all the parties, to the Communist Party which votes in the coming days, has a narrowed militant base and experienced moments of internal democracy which degenerate.
Do divisions are articulated around participation in the new Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nuts)?
In reality, the majority of Olivier Faure is more reduced if it is a question of designating him first secretary than on the question of the Nuts, which is more consensual. Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol claims not to be against the cloud but rather in a “yes but”. The reproach made to Olivier Faure is older than the electoral coalition, it is that of “erasure”, the fact for example of having led neither the list to the Europeans (of 2019) nor that of the regional (from 2021 ), not to assert yourself more, neither in the media nor in the animation of his party. As for the agreement of the cloud, it is above all the distribution of the constituencies which was a source of criticism and dissatisfaction …
For the rest, after the presidential election of 2022, there was no other way, apart from deploying the flag and going by ballot to elect a handful of deputies. The majority of members, but also of the voters, believes that it was necessary to make the cloud.
The future of the cloud depends on the outcome of the congress?
The future of the cloud does not depend only on the socialists. Local organizations or not? Application unit for each ballot? The poisoned gift for the head of the 2024 Europeans was refused by Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, but it testifies to an interesting “bound”: the idea of an autonomous socialist list. It is risky if we think of the 5 % threshold required to send deputies to the European Parliament. But, if not, what solution? An agreement with environmentalists? The French Communist Party? La France Insoumise (LFI)?
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