Socialist Party Rally at Zénith de Saint-Herblain Draws Large Crowd for European Elections Campaign

From our special correspondent in Saint-Herblain (Loire-Atlantique)

The PS mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, does not shy away from her pleasure: “five years ago for the European campaign, we made a municipal hall, a beautiful municipal hall, but where at most we put 500 people. » This Saturday, at the Zénith de Saint-Herblain, there were at least 2,500 to applaud Raphaël Glucksmannthe head of the PS/Public Place list for the European elections of June 9. Certainly, it is no more than the Macronists in Lille or the Insoumis in Villepinte in March. But what do you expect: we’re still talking about the party which won 1.7% in the presidential election, just two years ago.

There is “enthusiasm”, there is “hope” in the eyes and mouths of socialists. No doubt a bit of surprise too. Look at MP Arthur Delaporte, who came from his town of Caen (“It’s not that far actually!”) with a whole bus of socialist activists “and not just old people”. “It’s been ten years since we’ve done that. In 2022 we only had one van to go see Hidalgo in Paris, there were nine of us. » And he notes: “In the markets, door to door, the reception is good. We feel a desire to vote for us. They like Glucksmann. We don’t even get yelled at for the division of the left. ” Well.

When it’s going well, it’s going well

“Something is happening” say the socialists who, in the very latest Ipsos poll from Le Parisien and France TV, find themselves at 13%, just three points behind Valérie Hayer’s Macronist list. In short, it’s going well. This is also seen when great elders (Jean-Marc Ayraultthe former mayor of Nantes and prime minister) or major elected officials who had slammed the door of the party (Loïg Chesnais-Girard, the president of Brittany, close to Bernard Cazeneuve) are there.

It works a bit like that in an electoral campaign: when things are going well… well, things are going well. That is to say that you are not obliged to attack your left-wing competitors too openly, you are a little above controversies… And above all you no longer look backwards, you can look forward. This Saturday, looking ahead first meant targeting the National Rally (RN) and its head of list Jordan Bardella and the far right in general.

“Confrontation with the extreme right”

“It is up to us to lead the confrontation with the extreme right,” asked Olivier Faure, the speakers of the day barely passing on Valérie Hayer and Emmanuel Macron. “Marion Maréchal does the subtitles for the very polite Bardella,” added the boss of the PS. “The far right is disintegration and chaos, renunciation and capitulation,” said Glucksmann. In a particularly powerful speech, Johanna Rolland asked that we vote “with our eyes open in the face of ambiguities, financial and ideological dependencies between Jordan Bardella’s party and Russia” while the wave offar right in Europe and in France is, according to her, “resistible”.

This Saturday among the socialists, looking ahead also meant thinking about the future. Raphaël Glucksmann may say that “everything is not a presidential election in our country” (follow his gaze to his left), he will still have to explain it to his comrades. “We must now create the conditions for alternation in France and on the continent, and that begins on June 9,” said Faure, in a sentence in which the Insoumis could very well recognize themselves.

Orange light

The mayor of Saint-Herblain and the president of the Loire-Atlantique department also went there with their little verse on “the hope of waking up the left” or “a left which is not afraid of its reformism”, far “ excesses.” Glucksmann himself was not exempt from less European thoughts: when he asks the crowd to “overturn the political landscape”, we say that he can also think about the future.

Election campaigns that go well still come with a drawback: they raise expectations. However, there are still almost two months of the campaign remaining. This is still barely on the horizon of French people. Succeeding in holding this type of meeting two months before the deadline undoubtedly marks a dynamic. It will be necessary not only to maintain but to amplify the matter after the May bridges, when the campaign will be in full swing. And even more so in the very last days when the decision is traditionally made during the European elections.

Everyone is well aware of this and even if everyone shows their “hope” everyone claims to be “cautious”. Does Raphaël Glucksmann still have something under his belt? “We have public meetings every day, I have the impression that we are already there! », Explained, with a light air, a campaign executive before the meeting. It may, however, be a little orange light on the socialist dashboard.