While the National Council of the Socialist Party has yet to officially ratify the agreement with La France insoumise this Thursday, the rapprochement of the two movements in view of the legislative elections is creating strong turmoil within the left. Several figures of the PS slam the door, like the former Prime Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve. It has been a year since Philippe Buisson did not renew his PS membership card. The mayor of Libourne still considers himself an elected socialist but has distanced himself from the national leadership. This agreement consolidates it in its choice to move away from the Socialist party, which must be. He explains it.
France Bleu Gironde: What is your opinion on this agreement?
Philippe Buisson: I regret the sale to the cutting of the Socialist Party decided by the current management and in particular Olivier Faure. I will not support the agreement signed with La France insoumise, Europe Ecologie – Les Verts and the Communist Party because it is not loyal to my left. My left is European. Europe is an ambition that goes beyond us and not an ambition of shopkeepers.
What are your other points of disagreement?
PB: In the midst of the Ukrainian crisis, I have no desire at all to leave NATO as Jean-Luc Mélenchon invites us to do. He considered it absurd for France to send arms to Ukraine. I also do not agree with his vision of things on the health crisis that we have just gone through. He said he trusted the Russian vaccine, he said that the measures taken by the government were draconian.
Do you still agree with La France insoumise on certain points?
PB: I remain faithful to my social democratic left, a left that governs with strong social and societal markers. On the rental permit, for example, Libourne is the first city to have implemented it in France. There are things on which I find myself in the program of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But I won’t defend this deal because it’s inane. It simply guarantees the interests of a few for a constituency.
The Socialist Party is not playing its survival by signing this agreement?
PB: He would not even have survived without this agreement. But the Socialist Party will not survive this agreement either. The PS must regenerate from top to bottom by starting from a blank page. We need a clarification of the party line as the German socialists did. I left the PS because I disagreed with governance. I left him quietly, humbly. Today, I leave it a second time, I move away from it even more because of this inept agreement. But perhaps this crisis is necessary to purge old dissensions.
What will be your position for the legislative elections of June 12 and 19?
PB: I will see the political offer that will be offered to me. I can’t imagine supporting someone who wants to endanger France’s participation in the European Union.
Ecologists will no doubt run for the constituency in the Libournais. Wouldn’t you vote green?
PB: It would even be a socialist who would support this agreement that I would not vote for him. You are right to call them the Greens because to me they lost the Europe part of their party name. I will not support a candidate who would advocate the candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon as Prime Minister. It’s not true to my left and my beliefs. These are fundamental values on which we cannot compromise.
And in the event of a second round against a far-right candidate?
PB: I will always block the National Rally and the extreme right. My arm wouldn’t shake naturally. On the other hand, on other cases, there is no evidence.
Are you going to push for there to be a dissident candidate?
PB: I would like there to be a candidate from the left, and probably from the Socialist Party, who contests this agreement.