The first secretary of the PS was delighted to have been able, with his rival Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, “to go beyond (…) the hurtful words and overplayed disagreements”.
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© CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP
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HASfter several days of tension linked to the contested results of the ballot to appoint the leader of the party, the time has come for appeasement within the Socialist Party (PS). In his closing speech of the 80e PS Congress in Marseille, Olivier Faure acknowledged, thanking his opponent, that “finding oneself was not necessarily obvious”.
“There were hurtful words, overplayed disagreements, and a final week where many activists felt insulted, disrespected,” he said, “but you and I made a choice. That of overcoming these moments” and “doing together rather than against each other”.
He praised the “spirit of responsibility” of the Norman elected official, who agreed to become the party’s first delegate secretary, alongside the mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, a close friend of Olivier Faure.
An “unwavering belonging to the left”
“You and I are going to do better. From tomorrow, let’s bring the clear demonstration, “he said.
Olivier Faure was ironic about this Congress: “With us, everything is discussed. This is what makes us unique, perhaps even our charm. We can spend days debating direction. And then spend nights putting the broken dishes back together. »
Returning to Nupes, the main stumbling block with his rival, more skeptical about this alliance forged with LFI, the PCF and EELV, he underlined that “for the first time in five years, the French have been able [les] situate with certainty. “We have affirmed our unwavering belonging to the left,” insisted the first secretary.
He regretted, since 2017, “the loss of a bond of trust difficult to rebuild” with the French, with “the election of Emmanuel Macron and the appearance alongside him of former socialists”. The message was therefore “blurred”, according to him: “Who is a socialist? An aspiring minister in the waiting room, a traitor in the making. This is what many of our fellow citizens thought. »
Believing that “we do not build anything to proclaim the irreconcilable left”, Olivier Faure said he wanted to bring with socialist activists “the affirmation of what we are at the heart of the left”.
In a tackle to those who find him “submitted” to Jean-Luc Mélenchon and LFI, he snapped: “In this congress, I have often heard of submission. Do not be afraid to submit to the powerful! “It is by winning the PS that we can win the left,” he said.