Socialist Party Congress: Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol asks his rival Olivier Faure to say whether he will be a presidential candidate

Socialist members will vote on June 5 to choose the person who will lead the party.

Socialist members are preparing to appoint their first secretary on June 5. But before that, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol asked his rival Olivier Faure to clarify his ambitions and to say whether he will be a presidential candidate in 2027, in a letter of which AFP obtained a copy on Monday, June 2. The mayor of Rouen (Seine-Maritime) mentioned the "fear" of "many activists" that this congress "will be preempted" to make this vote "the de facto validation of a personal presidential ambition."

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, for his part, claims to have "no other ambition" than to be "a first mission secretary," with the aim of "getting the party back to work." But the mayor of Rouen, who finished second in the first round with 40.31% of the vote behind Olivier Faure (42.38%), believes that there remains "ambiguity" on the part of the outgoing first secretary. "I ask you, on behalf of the many comrades who are wondering and worried, to be clear in your turn and tell us whether or not you wish to be a candidate in the presidential election," he wrote.

"The congress is not intended to designate the candidate for the presidential election," MEP Pierre Jouvet responded in a statement, speaking on behalf of Olivier Faure. " This debate will come in due course. The day after the municipal elections" of 2026. For Pierre Jouvet, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol's movement "is raising this debate, probably because it has several declared candidates in its ranks," he added. The president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, and the mayor of Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane, indeed have presidential ambitions.

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol also urged Olivier Faure to agree to a televised debate or one "via party networks" , accusing his rival of having "avoided" him. Every evening, throughout France, Olivier Faure "participates and debates in the general assemblies of sections and federations" , replied Pierre Jouvet, "as close as possible to the activists who are the heart of this campaign" . Finally, while Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol deplores in his letter the "refusal to implement secure electronic voting" , Pierre Jouvet retorts that this vote has been "until now refused by a part" of the Rouen mayor's faction.