En view of the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, the 300 members of the National Council of the Socialist Party met on Thursday evening to decide on the programmatic and electoral agreement concluded Wednesday with LFI. The debates lasted four hours and alternated supporters and opponents of this union of the left. After midnight on Friday May 6, at the end of sometimes tense debates about this major strategic reorientation for the former dominant party of the left, the leaders of the movement voted for the New Popular Ecologist and Social Union with 167 votes in favor, 101 against. and 24 abstentions.
The rebels, ecologists, communists, and socialists will campaign together in June. A NUPES investiture event will take place on Saturday in Aubervilliers near Paris.
“This evening, the new Socialist Party is there and is in line with those who want to carry the alternative. We have been expected for months… Tomorrow we are going to the countryside all together, ”rejoiced the spokesman of the PS, Pierre Jouvet, in front of the journalists gathered at the exit of the council. “Now we are going to campaign together,” launched Olivier Faure for his part. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the one who represents the main force of the coalition. (…) He must ensure that each and everyone finds himself there. »
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“Resignation”
According to the list consulted by AFP, of the 70 constituencies obtained, a good twenty are winnable. But the constituencies of three outgoing were sacrificed: David Habib in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Christian Hutin in the North (who did not wish to represent himself) and Michèle Victory in the Ardèche. To which is added the 1st constituency in the Loire of Régis Juanico (Generations), which the PS thought of recovering.
Lamia El Araaje, whose election in 2021 was invalidated in 2022, also considers herself cheated, the agreement investing Danielle Simonnet. A motion was passed in the Council to give a mandate to renegotiate in favor of the socialist. The outgoing Assembly has twenty-six PS deputies, plus three relatives. Despite “reservations about Europe”, the mayor of Lille Martine Aubry, a historic figure in the PS, supported the agreement, believing that “left-wing voters expressed during the first round of the presidential elections 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 socialist leadership, however, faces the rebellion of party personalities.
“This evening, the new Socialist Party is there and is in line with those who want to carry the alternative. We’ve been expected for months… Tomorrow we’re going to the countryside all together”, welcomes @PJouvet after the PS vote in favor of the #NUPES. #legislative2022 pic.twitter.com/BP9urCPuSK
— Hugo Capelli (@Hugo_Capelli) May 5, 2022
A vote that does not pass?
Former President François Hollande “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 to AFP a “tinkering” and a “form of resignation” which risks fracturing the PS.
They are all offended by an alliance with a historical antagonist of the PS, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But also the inclusion in the agreement of “disobedience” to the European treaties in the event of blocking to apply the program, or even many social measures that they consider impossible to finance.
Anne Hidalgo for her part told AFP “not to wish to prevent an electoral agreement which aims to combat ecological and social regression”. While criticizing a text which “does not respect people” and which “does not provide the necessary guarantees on NATO, European defense or secularism”. The president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga has already and already presented candidates outside the agreement.And the president of the socialist group in the Assembly Valérie Rabault has made it known internally that she will not support the agreement, according to a message consulted by AFP.
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