PS Congress: pressure rises against Olivier Faure

Socialist activists vote Thursday, January 12, for the first round of the party congress. The outgoing first secretary is criticized by his two competitors, the mayors of Vaulx-en-Velin and Rouen, who criticize him for his agreement with LFI to form the NUPPS.

by Sandrine Cassini

At the Socialist Party (PS), the pot ends up with big broths for a few days. While Olivier Faure beats the campaign to convince members to support him at the Congress, the first round of which will take place on January 12, his new rival, the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, unchecks his arrows, accusing the current First secretary to produce “fake news” or want to manipulate the election by radiating certain new members. “From neo-topism”, replies Christophe Clergeau, close to Olivier Faure.

For the current socialist leader, who begins his fifth year at the head of the PS, the hour of truth has struck. Will he pay the agreement signed by the PS with the new Ecological and Social People’s Popular Union (Nuts) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as his two rivals criticize him in the Congress, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône) , Hélène Geoffroy, and Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol?

At the end of a four -month campaign started in September, Rouen’s councilor managed to start the majority obtained by Olivier Faure at the Congress of Villeurbanne in 2021. While the former assistant of François Hollande at the PS had Was designated at the time by 73 % of the votes against Hélène Geoffroy, her supporters are considering this time a score closer to 50 %. Whatever the score, a second round will have to decide him with the candidate who came to second. “The risk is” everything except Faure “”, is already worried about the deputy for Essonne Jérôme Guedj.

The future of the Nuts at stake

Hélène Geoffroy and her supporters have never hidden their satisfaction to see emerge with Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol a third candidacy, which mechanically increases the chances of weakening, or even eliminating the current holder of the post. “You cannot play a left-back center when you are in an alliance whose center of gravity is the populism on the left,” slips the former first secretary of PS Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, support of Hélène Geoffroy. The mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, carried by several former relatives of François Hollande within the PS, like Stéphane Le Foll, promised to slam the door of the Nuts if she was elected.

Officially, no question for Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol to fall into device drums. The mayor of Rouen, formed within the PS alongside Laurent Fabius, promises that he will not ask Hélène Geoffroy to support him in the event of qualification for the second round. “We will call the supporters of the two other candidates to come to work with us,” he said, seeing himself second, and already holding hands for the mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, “a friend”, that Olivier Faure promised to appoint number two of the party if it were elected.

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/Media reports cited above.