Special envoy to Blois (Loir-et-Cher)
Gathering, gathering, gathering. This is the word repeated over and over again by Olivier Faure on Saturday, during his closing speech at the Socialist Party summer school in Blois. The first secretary of the PS wants to unite the left in the presidential election of 2022 to prevent the return match between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen in the second round. "Are we capable, both of us, of making the lucid observation that no personal adventure will triumph in the presidential election?" He asked, turning to the other parties on the left at the same time. - starting with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, almost already a candidate - but also towards certain socialist executives."When I see personal ambitions blooming again even before the development of a collective project, I worry about our ability to get out of the Jupiterian logic" , he mocked.
"It's about coming to an agreement"
Although he is the leader of the PS, Olivier Faure does not exclude a rally behind a candidacy from another political family, if it allows the victory of the left. What to cringe internally. Some fear in fact that the strategy of the first secretary risks, in the long term, to make the party disappear ... “It is not a question of merging the existing formations, nor even of simulating a false unanimity. It is a matter of agreeing on a government program for the next five years, ” replied Olivier Faure.
Read also: Summer University: barely arrived, the Socialists are already showing their divisions in Blois
As for the political origin of the potential unitary candidate, the First Secretary hoped that he would not be "not environmentalist, not socialist, not communist, not rebellious". "He will wear all of this at the same time, otherwise, he will not be the common candidate, and above all, he will not win", he assured. “I don't deny the difficulty. Scars, resentment, mistrust, ambitions, real or overplayed disagreements ... " continued Olivier Faure. "But we have a responsibility first of all towards the women and men who expect from us answers and a new hope", he continued.
The regional as "a first test"
According to him, the regional and departmental, scheduled for spring 2021, will represent "a first test" . "How to hope for a single presidential candidate when we are not even capable of having common candidates for regional and departmental? Conversely, each common victory will serve as a fulcrum to win the presidential and legislative elections ”, he certified.
In this context, Olivier Faure proposed to launch "the spring of the left and ecology" to prepare with all the left formations and "the whole social movement" the next electoral deadlines. "I have never considered that the PS should take precedence over the whole of the left," he stressed, in response to François Rebsamen, the president of the federation of elected socialists. In front of them, Friday, the mayor of Dijon had affirmed "there was no victory on the left if the rally does not take place around [the PS]".