A few days before the activists' vote, Olivier Faure and Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, candidates for the post of first secretary of the PS, disputed the legacy of François Mitterrand by participating on Sunday in the celebration of the 27th anniversary of his death.
"
Coming every year (to the tribute paid to the former president, editor's note) is a way of following in his footsteps
", declared the outgoing boss of the socialists in Jarnac (Charente), while the mayor of Rouen evoked "
the legacy
" of François Mitterrand.
Both are in the running, with the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, for the post of First Secretary of the PS.
Fervent defender of the Nupes alliance, Olivier Faure is accused by his opponents of being subject to LFI and its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
"
When François Mitterrand becomes secretary, the PS is at 5% and he chooses an anchorage on the left, a common program with the communists, at a time when everyone condemns him
", he said.
defended.
“
You don't get bigger by breaking your neighbor's legs, you get bigger because you elevate yourself to a level where you embody the collective.
»
Read alsoLa Nupes at the heart of the next congress of the Socialist Party
A few meters away, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol called for a “
renewal
” of the party, “
as François Mitterrand did in his time
”.
The PS "
is not doing well, we are not going to hide behind our little finger, it is doing badly
", he said, adding: "
it is not the fault of a single person but it would be dishonest to say that management has nothing to do with it
".
For him, "
this is the congress of the last chance
" and "
the risk is that it will be the last nail in the coffin
".
The commemoration of the death of François Mitterrand was also the occasion for a skirmish between Olivier Faure and a member of the government on the subject of the pension reform which is to be presented on Tuesday.
While the Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune, a member of the PS in his youth, paid tribute on Twitter to the one who "
changed the life
" of a "
generation
", Olivier Faure retorted: "
the Mitterrand generation, c is the one who has passed the legal retirement age from 65 to 60 (...) You are about to go the opposite way
”.
The first and second rounds of voting by socialist activists to appoint their new leader take place on January 12 and 19, before a congress at the end of January in Marseille.