Olivier Faure, favorite to be re-elected to the leadership of the PS came first in the results of the first round of January 12. Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol will face him for the second ballot next Thursday. Official results are expected Friday morning.
The results of the first round of the new first secretary of the PS are not yet final but the names of the qualified are already known! Oliver Faure, favorite in the ballot, unsurprisingly came out on top in the votes but does not yet know if he has reached his goal of winning 50% of the vote. Facing him, it is the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and representative of the third way, neither really for nor completely against Nupes, who managed to qualify for the second round of January 19.
Without even knowing the share of votes collected, the figures must be published on the morning of Friday January 13, the two men thanked the members during the night of Thursday to Friday for having supported them. And the least we can say is that the boss of the PS, candidate for his re-election, did not show modesty by writing on Twitter: “Thank you to the thousands of socialist activists who have chosen to place me very well ahead of this first round vote. The strategic debate has been settled. The activists have clearly chosen the union of the left and environmentalists! Olivier Faure therefore persists in defending the alliance of Nupes, yet at the origin of strong divisions within the Socialists.
For his part too, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol welcomes a first victory with the “surprise and hope” created by the results of the ballot. And to add: “At this time, the outgoing leadership is no longer in the majority. Our line is the only one that can bring together all the Socialists next Thursday”. The Nupes alliance therefore remains at the heart of the debate. Hélène Geoffroy, a candidate who is campaigning to get out of the union of the left, only came third and was eliminated from the ballot at the end of the first round.
Who are the candidates to lead the PS?
After the first round of the election of the new first secretary of the PS, more than two out of three candidates are in the running. It was Hélène Geoffroy, mayor of Vaulx en Velin (Rhône) and historic rival of Olivier Faure who was eliminated. The choice is now still played by the camp favorable to the alliance of Nupes behind Olivier Faure and those who defend another path with Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol.
- Olivier Faure : first secretary of the Socialist Party since 2018, the 54-year-old joined the ranks of the PS when he was 16 and gradually rose through the ranks. He has been a deputy for Seine-et-Marne and a member of the party’s leadership since July 2012. If since his election as head of the PS, Olivier Faure has been unanimous, in 2022 the political leader divided the left by agreeing to join forces with La France insoumise (LFI) to form the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) for the legislative elections. The first secretary of the PS has since been accused of “subordination” by party executives who denounce a “surrender” and an erasure of the PS behind the too radical speech of LFI. However, the boss of the Socialists argues that this alliance was the only way for the PS to maintain weight in the National Assembly.
- Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol : he is the mayor of Rouen and the president of the Métropole Rouen Normandie (Seine-Maritime). This PS executive entered politics by working with Laurent Fabius from 2008 in the Rouen conurbation and committed to the Region in turn as an adviser or President of the Region. He also served Laurent Fabius at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 2013. During the presidential election of 2022, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol took part in the campaign of Anne Hidalgo and his candidacy for the head of the PS benefits this time the support of the mayor of Paris, but also of Carole Delga, president of the Occitanie Region and the Region of France association. Like the latter, the candidate does not recognize the place of the PS within Nupes and defends a “third way” between Faure and Geoffroy. His creed? To be neither for nor against the Nupes and to reform a “social-democratic, republican, humanist and ecological left”.
Who votes to elect the leader of the PS?
As the election is decisive for the future of the PS, only party members are invited to take part in the ballot on January 12 and 19, 2023. A total of 41,000 encartes can vote at the ballot box, but it is unlikely that all members take part in the vote. The party does not expect more than 20,000 voters to take a stand in favor of a name. However, given the strategic importance of the PS Congress in 2023, a renewed interest could have been observed.
What are the stakes of the PS Congress?
All members of the PS agree that the 2021 Congress is full of challenges, and for good reason it is the future of the party that is at stake. Several questions arise but they can be summed up in one: should we continue on the line drawn by Olivier Faure with the alliance of the left or get out of it and try to revive the PS from its ashes? In the camp of Olivier Faure it is hammered that the alliance of Nupes was the only way to allow the party to exist in the National Assembly when the elephants of the party and the executives of the previous generation howl for the erasure of the left behind the radicalism of the rebellious.
Beyond the Nupes, the members of the PS wonder about the functioning of the party which is faltering and whose lack of framework is undoubtedly not unrelated to the historically low results of the rose party in the last elections ( 1.75% in the 2022 presidential election). “For five years, we have been working backwards. The deputies take positions which become those of the party”, deplores the deputy Valérie Rabault in theObsnot without blaming Olivier Faure at the head of the PS since 2018. She is not the only one to judge the man responsible for the loss of speed of the political formation and to be in favor of a renewal at the head party.
Finally, the last subject, linked to the first two, which must be addressed at the PS Congress: what about the electoral strategy for the next political meetings? Impossible to answer without having taken a position on the alliance of the Nupes because in function the PS will have to campaign alone or deal with the other forces of the left. But the calculation is delicate: alone, it will be necessary to work hard without being sure that the efforts bear fruit to maintain the advantage in the senatorial and municipal elections, but together the PS will inevitably have to bequeath to its left-wing allies at the risk of becoming wipe off. The culmination of the next electoral cycle being the presidential election of 2027, the PS must also prepare to present a candidate and be able to guarantee him a score worthy of the name. On this subject, some lend Olivier Faure Elysian ambitions.