Here is the Socialist Party overtaken by its old demons. Accusations of cheating, ballot box stuffing… The duel between First Secretary Olivier Faure and Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol turned into a farce. The mayor of Rouen even said he was ready to go to court to restore his rights. Classic communication. From the 2008 Royal-Aubry war to the 2012 Copé-Fillon duel, each contentious internal ballot gives rise to this type of threat. They are never implemented. Like the nuclear weapon, it is moreover their raison d’être. “The threat of justice is first used to find an internal agreement”, admits the socialist boss Patrick Kanner, support of Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol.
It is an astonishing paradox. These votes, as transparent as a referendum in North Korea, would not last a minute in court. Any magistrate would cut them to pieces after a brief examination. Still need to be asked. Never has a national internal vote, which comes under the law of associations, been studied by magistrates. Question of culture, hum the interested parties. “It’s not a French tradition, and the magistrates hate it”, loose the ex-boss of the PS Jean-Christophe Cambadélis.
“Can you imagine a temporary administrator managing the PS?”
Tradition, real, has a good back. Political parties sometimes operate like mafia organizations. We wash our dirty laundry there as a family, far from the sword of justice. The magistrate is a foreign body, which is kept at a distance. “Justice has all ‘legal legitimacy’, but not political legitimacy”, considers the former president of LR Jean Leonetti.
We are all the more distant from the judge since fraud is never the prerogative of one camp. Whoever seizes it exposes himself to seeing his own turpitudes revealed in broad daylight and risks weakening his own. “It’s a euthanasia measure”, summarizes an LR candidate in a recent internal vote. “Can you imagine a temporary administrator managing the PS?”, chokes Patrick Kanner. An aggravating element: these disputes most often concern parties in crisis, without a natural leader. They only highlight their disintegration, which justice could complete. The French have not watched the PS for a long time, but the revelation of its internal grub would seal the break.
“We are wrong to be right”
And then, beware of whistleblowers. Whoever takes legal action will not be hailed by his peers, even if he wins. He will only be entitled to tar and feathers. “Divisor”, “traitor”, the worst accusations are promised to him. “It is wrong to be right, admits Jean Leonetti. Whoever wins in court loses credibility and ability to rally.”
Pragmatism and cynicism are false twins here. Our politicians aspire to govern by enacting laws, but refuse to submit to the judge, in charge of their application. Respect for the rule of law and militant democracy demand it. But who wants to be sacrificed on the altar of this virtuous circle?