EDITORIAL. Is there life left after Nupes? Bernard Cazeneuve’s challenge

Is there life left after Nupes? Or rather out of Nupes? This is Bernard Cazeneuve’s whole bet. He slammed the door of the PS last year, during the conclusion of this agreement. He wanted to protest against the takeover of Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the left and the abdication of the PS of Olivier Faure rallied to the line of the Insoumis. Since then, he has not spared his blows to denounce a strategy made up of excess, noise and fury, which contributes to hysterize the political debate and condemns, according to him, the left to remain in opposition for a long time. Bernard Cazeneuve opposes it with a peaceful expression, and the convictions of a social democrat attached to the Republic, to secularism, and to European construction.

>> The Convention: Bernard Cazeneuve launches his “movement of orphans of the left” (and anti-Nupes)

But can he really do without partners? In any case, this is his first problem. In view of 2027, the unitary aspiration at the base, within the left-wing electorate, remains very strong. Many voters are tired of being forced into a default choice in the second round of the presidential election, for lack of the presence of a left-wing candidate. It is not good to pass for the divider of his camp.
The other concern of Bernard Cazeneuve’s initiative is the remake side. The presence of François Hollande at his side on Saturday gave this meeting in Créteil a little atmosphere Blues Brothers, of the kind “we reform the group“…Not really innovative.

“Social Democrat”

And basically a question arises: is there a political space for this social-democratic line? The whole paradox is that it is very narrow today, but it is surely the only path that can ultimately lead the left to victory. Dominated by its radical fringe, the left is galvanizing its militant core, but it remains far, very far from a hypothetical majority. Even a rebel like François Ruffin understood this, to the point of calling himself a “social democrat”.

Bernard Cazeneuve wants to play on his reassuring profile to recover the center-left electorate passed to Emmanuel Macron. He still has to be more daring to train the rest of the left. Hence the choice of the name of his movement, the Convention, a nod to the Convention of Republican Institutions which brought together the core of François Mitterrand’s faithful, at a time when he was considered a has-beenworn and isolated.