Lhe next few days and weeks are likely to be very hectic at the PS. Olivier Faure, the outgoing first secretary, missed the 50% mark by a hair during the vote, Thursday evening, on the orientation texts, which determine the weight of each force within the party authorities. With 49.15% of the vote, he finished well ahead, but will have to contend with his two rivals, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol (30.51% of the vote) and Hélène Geoffroy (20.34%), both opposed, at varying degrees, à la Nupes.
The evening and the night of Thursday took on the air of 2008. At the Reims congress, already, the two rivals for the post of first secretary, Martine Aubry and Ségolène Royal, had disputed the victory on a background of cheating. Thursday night, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and Olivier Faure multiplied the declarations of victory and the suspicions of embezzlement. At 11:30 p.m., the camp of the first secretary proclaims its success, advancing a figure of 50.5%. The mayor of Rouen retaliates by hastily organizing a press conference after midnight to ensure that he is in a good place to become the next boss of the PS. “We are in a position to win,” assures Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol.
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The next morning, another video press conference to confirm the “surprise and hope of the day before”. Lamia El Aaraje, spokesperson for Refondation, which supports Mayer-Rossignol’s candidacy, warns: “It is impossible at this stage that Olivier [Faure] more than 48.5%. If the result is different, there is an arrangement with the figures and the federations. “The results of the federation of Reunion, Guadeloupe and French people living abroad have still not been released, and those close to the mayor of Rouen fear on the other hand a tampering with the results.
Faure can save his head
Olivier Faure therefore won 49.15% of the vote, but his net progress was disappointing. He gathered on his text a little more than 11,000 votes, or about 6,000 less than at the Congress of Aubervilliers, in 2018, during which he had acceded to the post of first secretary. There were then three other motions, defended in particular by Stéphane Le Foll, which did not prevent him from winning everything.
But Faure can save his head. First, he may very well be re-elected on Thursday, January 19, the day of the vote to appoint the first secretary. He will be opposed to Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, whose orientation text came second Thursday, January 12. The latter will count on the votes of Hélène Geoffroy, the third in the ballot. From Friday evening, the one who arrived 3e asked his voters to vote for Mayer-Rossignol, but Faure’s rival will have to fill up the votes to hope to beat the first secretary. Everyone is also counting on the many abstainers: only about half of the voters turned out on Thursday evening.
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Then, the troops of Olivier Faure remain dominant within the parliament of the PS (the national council) as well as in the political body (the national office). “In all cases, we are in the majority in the authorities”, we confide in the entourage of the first secretary. After the Congress of Marseilles, which will be held the last weekend of January in Marseilles, each departmental federation will indeed elect its first secretary. This college of a hundred representatives will then count for a third of the national council, which could tip the scales in favor of Faure, whether he is elected or not. “Given the results, we already have around fifty future federal primes with us”, assures the current management of the PS. A calculation which obviously does not adhere to the Mayer-Rossignol team, which intends to become the majority.
Olivier Faure’s entourage is already challenging a new leadership to exercise power with an unfavorable parliament and political body. “Cohabitation at the PS does not exist. The party would be paralyzed”, we dramatize at the party headquarters. Some close to Olivier Faure are also ironic about the differences that exist between the positions of Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and those of Hélène Geoffroy. The two leaders, who should join forces within the authorities, will have to agree on the only question that separates them: should Nupes be abandoned or not? Geoffroy wishes it, Mayer-Rossignol prefers to arrange an agreement which he considers “outdated”. The next few days and weeks are likely to be agitated at the PS, but also within the Nupes.
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