The anti-Mélenchon left met on Saturday in Montpellier to try to offer an alternative to the pro-Nupes line defended by the boss of the Socialists Olivier Faure. But some of its figures have their own ambitions and could find themselves in competition.
This raout is organized by the current Refondations of Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the mayor of Rouen, first deputy secretary of the PS and main opponent of Olivier Faure.
At the podium, the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, that of Montpellier Michaël Delafosse, the former presidential candidate Benoît Hamon... Former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who left the PS, did not make the trip, but spoke on video.
Parliamentary strategy against pension reform, Quatennens affair, European elections: since its painful birth in May 2022, the union of the left Nupes has above all offered the spectacle of its differences.
And the initiatives are multiplying to try to unite those who criticize the agreement concluded between La France insoumise, the socialists, the ecologists and the communists.
In mid-May, the former first secretary of the PS Jean-Christophe Cambadélis organized a gathering of social democracy. Next Saturday, Bernard Cazeneuve, who launched his own movement, the Convention, will be meeting in Créteil.
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wants to weigh in on the inside of the PS with Anne Hidalgo, Carole Delga or Michael Delafosse.
But many harbor, to varying degrees, national ambitions. “Eventually, they will all be candidates against each other”, analyzes one in the entourage of Faure, joined by AFP.
"I don't believe there is competition at all," replies Lamia El Aaraje, co-president of Refondations. "At one point it will take an incarnation, but today, all these initiatives are an enrichment".
In Montpellier, it is a question of "working on the substance", to "broaden the gathering of the left, deepen it and balance it", adds Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol.
He claims to have invited "all left-wing sensitivities", including several LFI officials who have all declined, as has Olivier Faure.
The latter even, according to several relatives of Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, called certain guests to cancel. But the deputy Philippe Brun, close to the boss of the socialists and present on the spot, denies having been discouraged from coming.
For Lamia El Aaraje, the boss of the PS should in any case have moved. "It would have been an opportunity to say that the dissensions of the Marseille congress were over". "A first secretary should not be a first sectarian", abounds the mayor of Rouen.
Olivier Faure's entourage retorts: "When you get insulted all day, do you want to go see them?".
Nice take on war, Benoît Hamon, who had "not spoken again in a socialist forum since 2017", justifies his presence: "You are a current of the PS with whom you have to talk and start asking the snippets of what could tomorrow lead us to success".
Refondations, which weighs 30% within the PS, "is in a dynamic" because public opinion associates Olivier Faure "with the excesses of Jean-Luc Mélenchon", estimates the former socialist MEP Lièm Hoang-Ngoc, a time rallied to the tribune Insoumis. It is necessary "to reassure people, to propose a credible program, but not social-liberal".
Carole Delga, who calls for a "desirable" project, is enthusiastic: "We are going to know how to debate again, in the differences, but with respect" and "equal to equal", she launches in a tackle at the Nupes, dominated by LFI.
Anne Hidalgo recognizes that the PS "is not doing well at all". "But, with Refondations, we are giving it energy through work".
Michaël Delafosse savors: "The left of reason has not said its last word".
On the menu, workshops and plenaries on the unity of the left, social-ecology, the republican promise or Europe, one of the main subjects of tension with Olivier Faure, who wants to discuss a joint list with LFI in the 2024 European elections.
"Faure is causing trouble. There is a form of submission to LFI", deplores the mayor of Bourg-en-Bresse, Jean-François Debat, while the Europeans must make it possible to "modify the balance of power" within the Nudes.
03/06/2023 19:34:29 - Montpellier (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
