It was the minority currents that led the revolt. The PS was divided once again on Tuesday during a national office where these currents demanded not to automatically censure a government that would be led by a left-wing personality outside the New Popular Front.
While the First Secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure stated on Monday that he would not go to the Elysée for the second round of consultations aimed at finding a Prime Minister, and that the Socialist deputies would vote a motion of censure against any government other than that of the New Popular Front, the two minority currents of his party denounced his line.
No vote came out of the National Bureau, but it was “a warning shot, a very strong warning” against the leadership, the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, head of the minority Refondations movement, told AFP.
During her speech, of which AFP has a copy, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, Hélène Geoffroy, leader of the Debout les socialistes movement, affirmed that it was necessary to “restart discussions with the President of the Republic”.
“We will be criticized by all voters, ours and those of the Republican front, for not having tried until the end,” she declared.
She criticized Olivier Faure for having mentioned the censure of any government that would not be led by Lucie Castets. “Including if it is led by a Prime Minister in a cohabitation government?” she asked, without ever mentioning the former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, regularly cited in the press as a potential Prime Minister.
“I am committed to continuing to seek solutions for a socialist/social-democrat Prime Minister who would allow us to implement immediate measures of appeasement” for the French, she continued.
For Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, “a position which says + outside of NFP, we sulk +, is not up to the moment”.
“A government that would be an extension of Macron’s rule, we would censor it,” he said, but according to him there is a possibility of a government led by a left-wing figure, perhaps outside the NFP, who could “bring in left-wing measures,” such as the suspension of pension reform and measures on purchasing power, taxation or public services.
But for the Secretary General of the PS Pierre Jouvet, “it does not exist”. “To make believe that a person would come to counterbalance a majority political report is an illusion”. For another close to the First Secretary, the management “holds the Castets line”. “Not to say now that we would censure a future government would be incomprehensible to our voters”.
