“The socialists did not prepare as they should have done for this deadline” of the presidential election, lamented Bernard Cazeneuve, former Prime Minister and former Minister of the Interior under François Hollande, Wednesday on franceinfo. This “unpreparedness” explains why to campaign “is more difficult for Anne Hidalgo [la candidate socialiste, qu’il soutient] than it has been for other socialist candidates, at other times”, he estimated. “For five years, the substantive work that needed to be done, reorganization, projection of a project, highlighting of talents has not been done”, he insisted.
“When we are not able to explain what we did well when we governed, when we claim to govern again, it is to others that we turn”, and it is precisely “what the socialists have not sufficiently understood in the last five years”, he criticized. He particularly welcomed the creation “of 60,000 jobs in education”, of “13,000 police jobs” or “of the success of COP21” under François Hollande, while recognizing that his will, after the attacks of November 13, to modify the Constitution to include the extension of the forfeiture of nationality to all dual nationals convicted of terrorism, even those born in France, “remains an error”.
Forfeiture of nationality ➡️ “It remains a mistake” assumes Bernard Cazeneuve. “I myself was not against the principle, but it was not necessary to proceed with the constitutionalization.”
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“If we want to have a gathering”, to the left “we need more ideas and fewer egos”, also affirmed Bernard Cazeneuve. “We cannot both want the rally and create the conditions for additional candidacies every day”, he launched, seeming to allude to the case of the former Minister of Justice, Christiane Taubira, whom he rubbed shoulders with when he was in government. “Every day, I wish that on the left, we begin to leave the egosphere to gradually enter the atmosphere” added the one who “prefers popular parties to popular primaries”.
“I also notice that the countries in which the Social Democrats win the elections are countries in which there are structured political organizations, candidates who are responsible and serious”, he underlined, taking the example of Germany and Portugal. “By dint of thinking that the reconstruction will be done on the margins, in radicalism, you make marginal scores”, he analyzed.