This Saturday, Anne Hidalgo goes to the grave of François Mitterrand to pay tribute to him on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of his death. Before her, many PS presidential candidates made the traditional pilgrimage, in search of filiation.
In the Socialist Party, time is running out. Many activists are leaving but some traditions remain. Especially among candidates for the Elysee. Among these customs, one takes place (almost) every January preceding a presidential election, precisely on the 8th: the party candidate with the rose and the fist goes to Jarnac, in Charente, the city where the former socialist president François Mitterrand is born and buried. Like most of her predecessors, the current PS candidate, Anne Hidalgo, is making the trip this Saturday for the 26th anniversary of the death of the first socialist president of the Fifth Republic. She will follow the classic route there: from the birthplace of “Uncle” to the wreath laying in the Grands-Maisons cemetery.
Jarnac is a must for any socialist who wishes to enter the Elysee Palace. “No one is under any obligation, affirms with exaggerated prudence the former minister of Mitterrand Hubert Védrine, today at the head of the foundation on behalf of the socialist president. But I note that the memory of Mitterrand has remained very powerful despite many controversies, his influence is still very important, the candidates also go there probably because they think that for the people of the left that retains an important symbolism.
“A historical lineage”
“François Mitterrand is the most historic socialist leader, a benchmark. Coming to Jarnac is to mark a relationship ”, clutches Julien Dray, to whom the former head of state had offered a constituency in Essonne in gratitude for his work with SOS Racisme. In Charente, each contender of the PS at the Elysee comes to invoke Mitterrand in his own way, according to the meaning he intends to give to his campaign. “If they all recognize Mitterrand’s powerful symbolism, they do not relate to the same aspects of his career: some come to place themselves in direct filiation, others take more distance, some come to follow in the footsteps of Mitterrand “Classic union of the left”, others find themselves no longer in the united France of 1988 ”, explains Hubert Védrine.
In 2011, Ségolène Royal, then a candidate for the Socialist primary, came to play the card of parentage to the full, explaining since Jarnac wanting “succeed” in Mitterrand. She then took advantage of an interview with World to recall the seven years spent in his entourage at the Elysee Palace and within the Bérégovoy government. Martine Aubry, also present in Charente (the first secretary of the PS will appear at the primary a few months later), will send in her speech a stinging message to her best enemy: “Politics is not about talking about yourself.” Five years earlier, in 2006, Royal – who would become a few months later the candidate invested by the PS – had, on the other hand, chosen not to go to Jarnac for the ten-year anniversary of Mitterrand’s death, leaving the party elephants in the background, all present in the rain. The former counselor at the Elysee Palace then preferred to meet the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, during a tour of South America.
Hidalgo, “in a sort of inheritance”
In 2012, the winner of the primary, François Hollande, had refused to place himself as heir to the “sphynx”. “I have my own approach, my own story, my own journey”, he had then insisted from the Charente village, while multiplying the parallels between Mitterrand’s life and his own candidacy. In 2017, Benoît Hamon, on the other hand, had not made the traditional pilgrimage, standing out, like Royal ten years earlier, from the hierarchs of his political family.
This Saturday, Anne Hidalgo should, in Jarnac, be placed “In a sort of inheritance” of the former president, according to his entourage. The legacy of a socialist left which “Knew how to transform France”, one specifies in the camp of the mayor of Paris. The latter is not, however, the most Mitterrandian of socialists. “It is not specifically nourished by the thought of Mitterrand, his inspirations are diverse and, if he is part of it, his filiations are more on the side of Jospin or Delors”, blows one of his relatives. The PS candidate should especially multiply the parallels between the career of the former president and the news, with strong emphasis on the Mitterrand “Who knew how to unite the left”, explains his entourage. She who for several weeks has been repeating that without a single candidacy, the left is led to disappear. So far without success.