Olivier Faure or Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol? Socialist Party activists face a choice between two visions of left-wing unity

Should the Socialist Party seek unity? Yes, respond the outgoing First Secretary, Olivier Faure , and his rival, the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol , both finalists in the Congress of the party with the fist and the rose. But each has a very specific perimeter in mind, which makes the question of the union of the left the main issue of this internal election, almost two years before the presidential election.

Called to elect their leader this Thursday, June 5, between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., Socialist Party (PS) activists can choose to reappoint Olivier Faure, who took the reins on April 7, 2018, from the ruins left by François Hollande's five-year term.

His line? That of rallying broadly, but without La France Insoumise, with which the Socialists had allied themselves under his orders during the legislative elections of 2022 and 2024.

The Seine-et-Marne MP believes that the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon will be a candidate at all costs. Consequently, he advocates a union of the non-Mélenchonist left, ranging from Place publique leader Raphaël Glucksmann to former LFI MP François Ruffin, to present a joint candidate.

"If Olivier Faure's orientation is not the one that wins this congress, the idea of ​​a joint left-wing candidacy in 2027 will collapse," believes the Socialist Party's number two and mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland.

On the other hand, his opponents are urging him to guarantee a Social Democratic presidential candidacy, while the First Secretary has not made this a prerequisite. "We cannot address only one segment of the left, those who are closest to us," he replies.

A way to challenge his opponent's strategy. Indeed, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wants to create a "Great Socialist Party" to bring together "those who are in the Socialist Party and those who are outside it," such as Raphaël Glucksmann, Benoît Hamon, and former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. A much narrower space than the one envisioned by Olivier Faure.

The mayor of Rouen also believes that a left-wing primary is "absolutely not the right way to go." "The primary that Faure wants is so impractical that it won't pass. The real primary is opinion. Left-wing voters will choose the best-placed candidate," MEP François Kalfon believes in a similar vein.

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol has gathered around him a coalition of anti-Faure supporters - he rejects this term - from the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, Hélène Geoffroy, to the president of Occitanie, Carole Delga, including the deputy of Eure, Philippe Brun, and the mayor of Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane.

Beyond the presidential election strategy, these socialists accuse Olivier Faure of "clan-like" party management and of "ambiguity" towards Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France Insoumise, despite the distance the first secretary has taken from La France Insoumise in recent months.

"I have no regrets about what we did," Olivier Faure replied Tuesday evening during a digital meeting, emphasizing that when the NFP came out on top in the early legislative elections in 2024, "Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol did not consider it to be nonsense."

In the race between the two men, Olivier Faure appears to have a head start. In the first round, he narrowly edged out the Rouen mayor (40.38%) with 42.21% of the vote. Importantly, the third-place finisher in the election, the leader of the Socialist deputies, Boris Vallaud (17.41%), indicated that he would vote for him in an interview with Le Monde , although he specified that it was a "personal choice," giving no voting instructions to his supporters.

If nothing is done, Olivier Faure's supporters hope their champion will succeed in winning more decisively than at the Marseille congress in 2023. In that election, the latter already faced Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol. After a very close result, the two camps were at loggerheads for several days amid accusations of cheating.

"This must be settled clearly so that there is no possible dispute," anticipates Dyenaba Diob, a close associate of Olivier Faure.