In Marseille, socialists undermined by divisions meet for a high-risk congress
For the Socialist Party (PS), will the Palais du Pharo, a majestic Marseilles monument overlooking the Mediterranean, be the scene of a new fight to the death, or the occasion to put an end to a bad film started on January 19? Difficult to decide on the eve of the opening of the congress of the PS, which is held from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 January in Marseilles. Friday at dawn, the two candidates for the post of first secretary remained in irreconcilable positions. The deputy of Seine-et-Marne Olivier Faure always claims a victory which his rival, the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol refuses him, denouncing the irregularities of the ballot. “Everything we could have done rather than fight in the mud for six months on the congress! »annoys the current leader of the PS.
Since the meeting held in his office in Ivry-sur-Seine on Monday January 23, the elected official has not seen either Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol or his occasional ally, Hélène Geoffroy, even if they called each other. this week. Eliminated during the vote on January 12, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, behind whom the faithful of former President François Hollande are placed, represents one of the currents of the party in the governing bodies.
The deputy continues to offer his two rivals, faced on January 12 during a first vote, assistant positions in a collegiate direction. But they want more. The mayor of Rouen sent him a memorandum of understanding, setting in stone an alternative governance project. In this document, the city councilor of Rouen sets the rules for a four-manager, the only way, according to him, to represent the weight of the three sensitivities. With 49% in the first round, Olivier Faure would have a second ally in this direction. Johanna Rolland for example, which he now wants to make his number two. There would also sit Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and Hélène Geoffroy. Decisions would be made by consensus, and disagreements would be settled by a vote of the national council. Olivier Faure would keep the title of national secretary. But in fact, he would be under guardianship.
The grizzled 50-year-old repeats to anyone who will listen all the harm he thinks of this idea in the form of a gas plant, paralyzing for the party. As if to prove his good faith, the city councilor of Rouen swears that if he had won the congress with only half the votes, he would have “offered exactly the same thing”. And also hammers that “the party is fractured in two. Politically, we have to get out of this.. In the meantime, faced with a vote which he considers ” not clear “he asks for the resumption of “the verification committee”which was supposed to play the justices of the peace after the vote of January 19, but whose work did not succeed.
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