Congress delegates endorse Olivier Faure’s victory

The delegates of the socialist congress in Marseilles ratified Saturday the victory of Olivier Faure as first secretary of the PS, thanks to an agreement with his rival Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, which puts an end to several days of disputes and internal fractures. On the second day of the congress, at the Palais du Pharo, the 186 delegates almost unanimously waved their red card validating the agreement between the two rivals, and relating in particular to the composition of the management. This “collective governance and socialist rallying pact” thus recognizes Olivier Faure as the party’s first secretary.

The outgoing and his rival, the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, who has so far contested his victory, agreed on this text at the end of the morning, after a long night of negotiations. “This house, you have just, once again, saved it”, reacted to the microphone, to applause, the mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan, who said “to have been afraid in recent days”.

“All together, all together, socialists”

Just before the vote, the two rivals greeted and kissed in front of the activists, who shouted “all together, all together, socialists”. The text determines that Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, skeptical vis-à-vis the left alliance Nupes, will become first deputy secretary – a title created for the occasion – alongside the mayor of Nantes pro-Faure Johanna Rolland. “It’s a global governance agreement, which integrates the majority and the minority”, explained Olivier Faure to the press, “a pact which connects everyone but at different levels”.

According to the text, the first secretary and the first two deputy secretaries will work “in a collegial manner, seeking consensus”. But “there is no collegial management which would occupy the function of first secretary”, specified Olivier Faure, recalling that in the event of divergence, the decision-making body remains the national office. Without mentioning the Nupes alliance by name, the agreement also specifies that the management “is part of the desire to pursue, with respect for sensitivities, a strategy of bringing together the left and ecology”, with “the need that the socialist party once again become its central force”.

Hélène Geoffroy, leader of the anti-Nupes, will not be part of the management but will take the presidency of the national council, the parliament of the party. A symbolic function, which marks “that it is associated with the gathering but does not share the line” of orientation, said Olivier Faure.

“A balance of power relations”

The mayor of Rouen, a critic of the left-wing Nupes alliance of which Olivier Faure is a craftsman, disputed the victory of the outgoing first secretary for several days (officially with 51.09%). Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol says he embodies a central line, less pro-Nupes than that of Olivier Faure. He does not hide his reluctance vis-à-vis LFI and an agreement that has disappointed many socialists. “This gathering must be our pride to all”, underlined Pierre Jouvet, representative of Olivier Faure, at the podium, considering that “we are living, as the socialists have the secret and also the talent, a moment which will remain in the history of our congresses”.

“There is an architecture to be built in respect of what the activists have expressed”, explains the leader of the deputies Boris Vallaud, that is to say a “balance of the balance of power”. After a first vote on the orientation text, Olivier Faure had obtained 49% of the votes and the mayor of Rouen around 30%, ahead of a third candidate, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy ( around 20%). The negotiations were notably unblocked when the latter, who had not been able to maintain herself and had decided to support Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, indicated that she did not wish to integrate the management, but to remain in the opposition.

“They assume to be the minority, but are no longer with Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, which changes the situation” and the balance of power, explains a close friend of Olivier Faure. “Our goal is to bring people together and not crush them”, explained this same source, while the internal war between the two camps has fractured the party and damaged the image of the PS, already weakened by the historic failure of its presidential candidate, Anne Hidalgo (1.7%).