After the mic mac of the night, the Socialist Party has finally appointed its new boss… ten minutes. According to the official press release, the 41,000 socialist members have decided 50.83% to renew Oliver Faure as First Secretary, beating Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol by a hair.
The two candidates had claimed victory during the night from Thursday to Friday, without it being known who had won. This Friday morning, the Socialist Party officially announced the victory of Olivier Faure in a press release, following a very tight ballot. “23,759 votes were cast during this election. At the end of the vote, the results of the ballot from the federations were transmitted to the organizing committee of the congress. They are as follows: Olivier Faure obtained 12,076 votes or 50.83% of the votes cast, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol obtained 11,683 votes or 49.17% of the votes cast.
The PS specifies that “the final results will be announced following the vote of the delegates of the Marseille Congress which will be held on January 27, 28 and 29, 2023”.
In a press release published on social networks, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol maintains that he has obtained “at least 50.5%” of the votes and requests that the verification committee be convened this Friday followingnoon. “Without it, no result can obviously be proclaimed”. “I ask that the choice of activists be simply respected,” he insists.
The proofing committee generally has the task of checking the minutes from the 103 party federations when an election is organised. It is also responsible for examining requests for corrections submitted by candidates’ representatives. This commission had worked in particular in 2008 when Martine Aubry and Ségolène Royal clashed over the succession of François Hollande at the head of the PS.
On Twitter, the National Secretary for Coordination and Resources, Corinne Narassiguin, replied to Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, reproaching him for his attitude. “After the arrival of the overseas results, at 4:45 a.m., we brought together the national committee for the organization of the congress. Your eight representatives refused to examine the results and preferred to ask for the rescheduling of the commission for 1h30, before leaving, ”she replied. During a press briefing “Operation Transparency”, at the end of the morning, Corinne Narassiguin, “to ensure the neutrality of what will follow”, left the hand to the permanents of the party, in charge of the technical feedback of the results. They listed the results federation by federation, and enumerated any observations, malfunctions and complaints that were reported to the headquarters of Ivry. They show an atmosphere to cut with a knife in some polling stations but, insisted Corinne Narassiguin, “if we take all the disputes into account, it does not change the order of arrival of the two candidates. It will change the percentages but it does not change the fact that Olivier Faure came out on top.
She was moved that “the party’s image was greatly damaged by yesterday’s evening” among socialist activists and more broadly within French opinion.
In the home stretch, the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol did not spare his blows once morest his opponent, accusing him of having refused a televised debate, and accusing his team, in a press release published Wednesday evening, of failing to “transparency” in “reporting the results of the federations”. A battle of figures is to be expected, as during the vote of the militants on the text of orientation last Thursday, intended to determine the balance of power in the authorities of the party. The outgoing management even accused the opposing camp of fraud in certain sections.
A result that might change the Nupes
Beyond the people, this result was eagerly awaited at the PS because it has consequences on the agreement concluded in May 2022 for the legislative elections with insubordinate France, Europe Ecologie – the Greens and the French Communist Party. Indeed, Olivier Faure defended his strategy of an “exclusive” left alliance, the only way, according to him, to block the right and the far right in 2027. Alliance which made it possible to keep a group of 32 socialist deputies in the National Assembly, despite the historic presidential failure of candidate Anne Hidalgo (1.7%), but deeply divided the party to the rose. Indeed, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol is more reserved on this agreement which he considers “losing”, not hiding his reluctance vis-à-vis the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. It is partly thanks to this positioning that the mayor of Rouen had garnered the support of the third candidate, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, clearly hostile to Nupes.
