Raphaël Glucksmann, head of the list for the PS and Place publique, launched into the European battle on Sunday with a large meeting near Toulouse, to “wake up Europe”, denouncing “indolence” and the “concentration of ‘self-centeredness and indifference’ towards the situation in Ukraine. In front of more than 2,500 people gathered in an overheated room in Tournefeuille (Haute-Garonne), in the heart of Occitanie, a land of the left, the MEP asked himself: “are we witnessing the disintegration of European democracies or on the contrary when they wake up?”
“Another Europe, fairer, more dignified”
Entering the stage on the title of the rapper Eminem “Lose yourself”, the 44-year-old essayist assured that he could “bring another Europe to emerge, fairer, more dignified”, repeatedly attacking the macronie, “leaders without a backbone “, “sleepwalkers”. “We are not made of the same crumbly wood as that of the president and his cronies, we do not change our speech depending on the audience,” he criticized in particular. “We, the extreme right, do not flatter it, we fight it,” reiterated Raphaël Glucksmann, who intends to interfere in the match between Renaissance and the RN.
Campaigning quietly for several months, the founder of the small Place Publique party, who convinced a little more than 6% of voters in the 2019 European elections, is currently credited with 9 to 13%: he is currently in the lead from the left, in third position behind the head of the National Rally list, Jordan Bardella, and that of the majority Valérie Hayer. “I smell something that has the taste of hope, the smell and flavor of beginnings, something that resembles spring,” he told the crowd, chanting “we are going to win” and “ tax the rich”, one of the measures he defends at European level.
Presenting himself “as the candidate of a European social democracy rid of all forms of weakness and compromise”, Raphaël Glucksmann became bitter about the situation in Ukraine: “I can’t stand this indolence” of the elites French and European, “of this concentrate of laziness and lightness, of egocentrism and indifference”.
33 seats away from swinging the majority
He also criticized LFI and the communists who accuse him of being “a warmonger”. “We must answer them that the only path to peace is precisely firmness and that each capitulation, each setback brings the war closer to home.” In this election, the essayist wants to try to recover the disappointed voters of Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) and get ahead of Valérie Hayer (Renaissance). A good score would “reshuffle the cards for the presidential election” and the next union that the PS is calling for after the failure of the Nupes (New ecological and social popular union) born in May 2022 after an agreement between the left-wing parties, sums up a socialist.
The stakes are also high in the European Parliament, where the European Socialist Party is 33 seats away from overturning the majority, currently held by the EPP (right), Olivier Faure regularly reminds us. Becoming the first group would allow them to have a preponderant weight in the choice of the next president of the Commission, a position occupied today by Ursula von der Leyen (PPE), candidate for a second term.
“Attacked from all sides”
Olivier Faure assured a little earlier in the forum that he had “never regretted the choice of 2019” to designate him head of the list. “You stood your ground every time the essential was at stake”, citing the rights of the Uighurs (Muslim minority that Beijing is accused of persecuting), Russian interference, support for the Ukrainian resistance or the rights of flat workers. -digital forms. “You will be attacked from all sides, nothing will be spared, we will search your past, your present, we will blame you even your name, but we will be there!”, added the boss of the socialists.
Criticized in 2019 by part of the PS, who took a dim view of a non-socialist head of the list, Raphaël Glucksmann is now almost unanimously supported by the pink party. Including among former rebels who appreciate his positions breaking with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, particularly on China, the Ukrainian question or European defense. “It is not those who want to oppose, to create division, but those who want to reconcile, who will win,” assured Carole Delga, the president of Occitanie, known for her anti-LFI positions.