Re-elected in pain after several days of crisis, the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, was delighted, on Sunday January 29, to have been able, with his rival Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, to go beyond "hurtful words and [the] overplayed disagreements".
In his closing speech at the 80th PS congress in Marseille, Olivier Faure admitted, thanking his opponent, that "getting together was not necessarily obvious", after several days of tension linked to the contested results of the ballot to designate the party leader.
"There were hurtful words, overplayed disagreements, and a final week where many activists felt insulted, disrespected," he said. But, you and I, we made a choice. To move past those moments and [to] do it together rather than against each other. »
The first secretary praised the "spirit of responsibility" of the Norman elected official, who agreed to become the party's first delegate secretary, alongside the mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, a close friend of Olivier Faure. "You and I are going to do better. From tomorrow, let's bring the clear demonstration," he said.
"Our unwavering affiliation with the left"
Olivier Faure quipped about this congress:
“With us everything is discussed. This is what makes us unique, perhaps even our charm. We can spend days debating direction. And then spend nights putting the broken dishes back together. »
Returning to Nupes, the main sticking point with his rival, more skeptical about this alliance forged with LFI, the PCF and EELV, he underlined that, "for the first time in five years, the French have been able to situate us with certainty". "We have affirmed our unwavering belonging to the left," hammered the first secretary.
He regretted, since 2017, "the loss of a bond of trust difficult to rebuild" with the French, with "the election of Emmanuel Macron and the appearance alongside him of former socialists". The message was therefore "blurred", according to him: "Who is a socialist? An aspiring minister in the waiting room, a traitor in the making.” This is what many of our fellow citizens thought. »
Believing that "we do not build anything to proclaim the irreconcilable lefts", Olivier Faure said he wanted to bring with socialist activists "the affirmation of what we are at the heart of the left".
In a tackle to those who find him "submissive" to Jean-Luc Mélenchon and LFI, he snapped: "In this congress, I have often heard of submission. Do not be afraid to submit to the mighty! "It is by winning the PS that we can win the left," he finally said.
