After almost 43 years, what is the state of the left?

On May 10, 1981 François Mitterrand became the first socialist president of the Fifth Republic. Forty-three years later, it is a very distant memory, including for the Socialist Party which has not planned anything in particular for this anniversary.

This forgetting or at least this absence of commemoration also says a lot about the state of mind of the left. A left incapable of projecting a victory in the presidential election. And even before a victory, plan for a lasting union as inaugurated by François Mitterrand and much later by Lionel Jospin and his plural left from 1997 to 2002.

Nupes is now dead and buried, if indeed it really existed beyond the electoral agreement that it was for the legislative elections of 2022. This may seem anecdotal but the very fact of not knowing if it It must be said that Nupes or Nupès bore the seeds of the deep ideological divergences that exist between its different components. By redacting Boileau’s adage a little, we could say that what is conceived is stated and pronounced clearly. The worm was in the fruit. The riots of last summer and then the Israeli-Palestinian conflict got the better of this union led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the Insoumis. The PS, the ecologists and the communists have taken up their marbles. So of course these three still talk to each other but nothing says that they will be able to agree on a common program and candidates. The European election where everyone goes to their own corner is clear proof of this.

The question of direction to give

Could Raphaël Glucksmann’s score on June 9 change anything? If he is really at the head of the left-wing groups, that could have an impact. Mainly on orientation. Raphaël Glucksmann embodies more of a social democracy from which today’s PS has moved away. A good score from the MEP would refocus the PS. But it is not certain that the communists and the ecologists find each other there. We are far from a new federation of the left. One thing seems almost certain: it would be done without the Insoumis.

At this stage, there is no one to naturally unite the entire left. Some would see themselves there, François Ruffin, for example, who continues to speak with other “unionists” of the left as they are called. Another man believes it, yes you read correctly, it’s François Hollande. The former president is increasing his trips to the field and he is not ruling out anything. It is even said that a good score from Raphaël Glucksmann could serve his ambition of a central and not a radical left. Even more so if the left/right divide reactivates after the end of the Macron era. In short, it’s far from being done. The union was a miracle, it remains to this day a mirage.