A party on the verge of implosion. The Socialist Party has “suspended”, Friday April 29, the negotiations in progress with La France insoumise with a view to an agreement for the legislative elections of June 12 and 19. A decision supposed to appease the few elected officials, executives and historical figures of the party, who castigate the discussions with the formation of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Only a few weeks before the legislative elections, these dissensions threaten the union of the left and the PS itself, threatened with a split.
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On the strength of its score in the first round of the presidential election (21.95% of the votes cast), La France insoumise proposed, via its Popular Union, “twelve markers” of discussion to make the left formations converge towards an electoral agreement. A hand extended to the Socialist Party, Europe-Ecologie-Les Verts, the French Communist Party or the New Anti-Capitalist Party.
After being partly aligned with the program of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as specified in a document published Thursday, the PS is now distancing itself and says it needs more pledges to continue to negotiate. “We want to reach an agreement between the whole left and environmentalists (…) But to achieve this, this requires a real shared logic. We must break with any hegemonic logic and accept plurality. At this stage we don’t have any. no guarantee”wrote the management of the PS on Friday in an internal message, of which franceinfo was able to consult a copy.
Should we see in this suspension a need for time to agree internally? After the cold shower of the first round of the presidential election (1.7% of the vote, the worst score of the PS in this election), the formation led by Olivier Faure is going through a zone of strong turbulence. The perspective of the legislative elections, a time perceived as “a rebuilding tool” by the socialist senator Patrick Kanner, creates on the contrary intense debates on key points such as the place of France or within the European Union or the pension system.
In the document published on Friday, the PS operates a slight change of course about the EU. “The implementation of the program that we are building will necessarily lead to tensions (…) and not to respect certain rules”writes the party leadership, before justifying itself: “We will be neither the first nor the last to do so, in France as in Europe.” A statement that does not pass for the former socialist president, François Hollande, because it would call into question “the foundations of socialist commitment”.
Alliance on the left? ➡️ “Would that mean that the next government would have to question the European treaties? To leave NATO? To no longer help the Ukrainians?”, attacks François Hollande, who recalls that the retirement at 60 was made by the PS. pic.twitter.com/MF63XN2v6r
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) April 28, 2022
In a column published Friday evening, eight socialist mayors of large cities seem to adopt a middle course. These city councilors, including the mayors of Rennes, Nathalie Appéré, and Nantes, Johanna Rolland, say they are in favor of a union of the left “in respect of the identities and values of each” and reaffirm “the primacy of European law”. And underline at the same time their desire to “change the rules of the game” within the EU.
On the subject of pensions, the leadership of the PS said it was in favor of a “right to retire at age 60”, as Jean-Luc Mélenchon wishes. That is two years earlier than what the socialist candidate, Anne Hidalgo, who wanted “to sanctify” the current legal retirement age is 62. “Everyone knows it’s financially impossible”reacted François Hollande at the microphone of franceinfo.
Echoing the criticisms of the former socialist president, an increasingly virulent revolt is being heard within the PS. The minority current “Stand up the socialists”, led by the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, Hélène Geoffroy, does not digest the remarks made by the first secretary of the party during a meeting of the national office on Tuesday. “If you think that the PS is dead, that there is nothing more to do, that you no longer belong to the left, then leave! Join La République en Marche”, had launched Olivier Faure to the opponents of the negotiation with La France insoumise.
A reference to the formula used a few days earlier on Public Senate by the former minister and mayor (PS) of Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll. “This party is dead, this party is over”he declared, adding that Olivier Faure was engaged in “a strategy that leads to electoral erasure”. “It is not a negotiation or an agreement that is proposed [par LFI]it’s a surrender”, reacted Hélène Geoffroy in a letter published on Tuesday. A point of view shared by François Hollande, possible candidate in Corrèze, who denounces an agreement “unacceptable in terms of what it represents electorally”.
Critics also fuse on the side of the socialist senators, the second political force at the Luxembourg Palace. “Who was consulted on the text sent by the PS to LFI? Neither me nor any PS body”was surprised at Twitter the senator of the North, Martine Filleul. “I am neither committed nor bound by this approach”supplemented the senator from Val d’Oise, Rachid Temal.
If La France insoumise says it is confident in the continuation of negotiations with the PS, its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, did not fail to scratch the left parties this Saturday in The Sunday Journal. “For some of our partners, winning is a pipe dream. They have a permanent culture of defeat”, he lamented, without specifying the names of the parties targeted. To reach a possible agreement on the left, time is running out. “We would like this to be settled on Sunday”, warned Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the eve of the symbolic date of May 1. The People’s Union has planned to unveil the nominations to the candidates for the legislative elections on 7 May.