After four hours of intense debate, the National Council of the PS adopted by 62% Thursday evening the agreement with LFI, EELV and the PCF for the legislative elections in June, a historic change of direction.
The agreement was adopted by 167 votes for, 101 against, and 24 abstentions.
“It’s a moment of clarification, this vote says to which political space we belong”, “on the left” and not with Emmanuel Macron, concluded the first secretary Olivier Faure from the headquarters of Ivry-sur-Seine.
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL VOTED FOR THE UNION OF THE LEFT | The agreement with the other left political forces is approved by the National Council of the PS! Find my statement after the vote. https://t.co/7BUNT48Xe3
— Olivier Faure (@faureolivier) May 5, 2022
A return to the “radicality” of the PS
“Mitterrand, that was radicalism, and yet we did it (…) By dint of saying that we are a party of government, we can forget our own roots, which are partly in radicalism”, justified Oliver Faure.
Despite reservations about Europe, the mayor of Lille Martine Aubry, a historic figure in the PS, supported the agreement, saying that “left-wing voters expressed during the first round of the presidential election a strong aspiration to rally and to the unit”.
Several major city mayors have also called for support. Among them Johanna Rolland (Nantes) who led Anne Hidalgo’s campaign at the Elysée Palace, Benoît Payan (Marseille) and Mathieu Klein (Nancy).
The PS facing the sling
The socialist leadership, however, faces the rebellion of party personalities. “The agreement you negotiated asks us to excuse ourselves, to repent, to deny part of our history”, protested the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône) Hélène Geoffroy.
François Hollande himself “challenged the agreement on the substance and the constituencies”, while his former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve carried out his threat by leaving the party. Another former head of government, Jean-Marc Ayrault, deplored a “tinkering” and a “form of resignation” which risks fracturing the PS.
These executives of the PS are offended by an alliance with Jean-Luc Mélenchon but also by the inclusion in the agreement of “disobedience” to the European treaties or even the many social measures which they consider impossible to finance.
In Occitania, dissident candidates
While criticizing an agreement text which “does not provide the necessary guarantees on NATO, European defense or secularism”, Anne Hidalgo for her part indicated “not wishing to prevent an electoral agreement which aims to combat ecological and social regression”.
Absent from the debates yesterday, the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga has already presented candidates who do not agree.
An investiture event of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), with LFI, EELV and the PS, is to be held on Saturday in Aubervilliers near Paris.