In the Socialist Party, you first learn to write letters to your fellow activists. They always begin like this: “Dear socialist comrade”; and end with the same delicacy, in all circumstances: “Socialist friendships”. François Mitterrand, who blackened many letters of this kind, said that between these two expressions of politeness, one could write all sorts of horrors but that the important thing had to remain. No matter the hatred and low blows in the middle of the congress, no matter the manipulations of each other, we remain socialist no matter what. The congress which opposes Olivier Faure to Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and Hélène Geoffroy, the 80th in the history of the PS, does not betray this old adage.
The document to which L’Express had access will leave traces and embarrass Olivier Faure as much as his competitors Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and Hélène Geoffroy. It is a confidential note, soberly entitled “general notes”, which tarnishes the sincerity of the ballot and on which everyone preferred to turn a blind eye. The file catalogs a long series of irregularities observed during the ballot, federation by federation. Some are more surprising than illegal, others question the current practices in the old pink house, where the old demons of cheating still hover. In total, the party leadership estimates that at least a thousand votes (out of 23,179 voters) appear contentious during the first round of this 80th congress.
“Oddities” and “parallel” urns
“Oddities”, as we say modestly at the PS, which “do not taint the vote”, we even assure. Several federations are in the sights of the pink device for its practices. In Sarthe, in Hérault or even in Paris, socialists suspended for dissent in the last legislative elections (they presented themselves or supported a candidate invested in Nupes, editor’s note), were thus able to submit a ballot. In the section of the 20th arrondissement of the capital, bastion of Lamia El Aaraje, an additional ballot box has even been installed, reserved for recently suspended activists, and two ballot reports have been published and communicated to activists. “Members suspended by the party leadership were able to vote in a separate ballot box. We did it because we disagree,” confirms El Aaraje to L’Express. This is confirmed by David Assouline, elected Parisian and representative of the Mayer-Rossignol motion, who says he hopes that the congress does indeed count the ballots of these members who have nevertheless been revoked.
In Moselle, Olivier Faure’s agent was not authorized to sign the minutes of the ballot. In the Oise, the report of the vote was signed only by the representative of Olivier Faure. In Corrèze, the same document was sent to headquarters without having been consulted by representatives of Faure and Mayer-Rossignol. In the Pyrénées-Orientales, we try to get non-militants to vote by writing their name on the list by hand. “In a section of Seine-Saint-Denis, still indignant a close friend of Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the address given for the polling station was that of a train station!”
478 ballots counted for… 163 registered
In the Hérault and in the Ariège, the management is surprised to see the participation double between October 2021, the date of the militant consultation which saw Anne Hidalgo be invested as a presidential candidate, and this first round of the socialist congress. In Dijon and Cherbourg, we see old activists whom we have not met for more than three years come to image en masse, and pay, on the day of the vote, their contribution for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023. ” We met a lot of relatives of Bernard Cazeneuve, really a lot, that we had not seen for years”, are surprised by local sources. In the Tarn-et-Garonne, it is activists who are not up to date with their contributions that are authorized to vote. In the Federation of the Socialist Party of Reunion, the maneuver is much less discreet according to the confidential note: 478 ballots were counted, but there were only 163 registered.
It is in Seine-Maritime, the stronghold of Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, that many suspicions are concentrated. The leadership of the PS quickly suspected that things would get worse there when it sent a bailiff to Elbeuf, a town in the suburbs of Rouen, on the evening of January 12. There, the supporters of Olivier Faure come face to face with the mayor, Djoude Merabet, a close friend of Mayer-Rossignol, suspended from the PS for having presented himself against a candidate from the left-wing coalition last June in the former constituency of Laurent Fabius. In photographs consulted by L’Express, we see the city councilor, crutch in one hand, chatting with activists and assessors. His deputy, also secretary of the PS section of Elbeuf, is observed chatting in the voting booth with activists. In a neighboring section of the same federation, the name of the former deputy Guillaume Bachelay who does not appear on the list of registered members is added by hand.
Asked, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol did not respond to L’Express. According to 20 minutes, the subject of the irregularities was discussed on Sunday during a meeting of the candidate’s representatives from each department. He was expressly asked to be “clean everywhere, at all levels”, otherwise it would be impossible to denounce the “scheming at Faure”.
“Safeguarding the Party’s Image”
Dozens and dozens of examples of irregularities cast suspicion on certain socialist federations already in poor shape since the end of the Hollande five-year term. Did Olivier Faure know? Did Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol know? Did Hélène Geoffroy know? “Yes”, confirm, embarrassed at the corners, the entourages of the three. Everyone turned a blind eye to these acts of potential cheating, while simply canceling the vote of the Reunionese federation. “We preferred to save the image of the Party that we will continue to lead. In agreement with the TO2 representatives (Faure’s motion, editor’s note), I stopped the in-depth examination of the irregularities on Friday at the end of the day. two more national councilors for the TO2 was not worth a debate that would have dragged on all weekend”, justifies Corinne Narassiguin, president of the commission for the consolidation of the results, a kind of Constitutional Council of the party responsible for validating or not the votes. .
A debate that did not take place, disputes Patrick Mennucci, gun holder of Geoffroy. “No element was brought to us! It may have existed but I knew a time when suspicious files were presented and studied. There, nothing!” David Assouline, lieutenant of the motion of Mayer-Rossignol, concedes without too many details: “There were reservations for verification on certain federations, as much at home as at home. We were nice, we did not check everything at home. I’m not going to say that there were irregularities, but doubts, questions, yes. It could be small things and a few more global challenges. We should have heard the people in the federations, bring up the PVs, one by one… After eight hours of discussion, nobody wanted to do it. We all agreed that the result was this, even if it did not satisfy everyone.” And to get annoyed: “I don’t want to play the one who lights the fires but it’s not me who leads the party. It’s Olivier Faure and his friends who have the majority of the federations, and they would be the victims of our actions? It’s incredible!” Neither Olivier Faure nor Pierre Jouvet, his agent, responded to our requests.
There was a time, at the PS, where these practices were legion. Each of the candidates for the post of First Secretary agreed to cancel one dubious “federation” against another. “We exchanged yellow cards,” recalls a former executive. During the Aubervilliers congress in 2018, Olivier Faure promised to renovate the party and its functioning, sometimes archaic and too often in the hands of local baronies. Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, who aims to steal the throne from him, promises nothing different. Activists are asked to believe them. Ironically, last Thursday, January 12, in the corridors of the PS headquarters, we met the same faces as fifteen years ago, during the Reims congress which saw Ségolène Royal and Martine Aubry confront each other against a backdrop of cheated. The congresses pass, the food remains.