The secretary general of the Socialist Party (PS), Pierre Jouvet, announced in the Journal du Dimanche (JDD) of April 23 that his party would propose a “debate” between the various left-wing parties, spread out from “the return to school in September” to “early November”, in order to work towards a “rally” in view of the European elections of 2024.
“The European question has always been the most difficult question on the left,” admitted Mr. Jouvet, while the components of the New People’s, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) harbor differences on the subject. Calling to take “things in order”, Mr. Jouvet therefore indicated that his party would propose “to the whole of the left a debate at the start of the school year from September until the beginning of November”.
“Let’s put our proposals, our convergences and our divergences on the table. Let’s take the construction time. Let’s work on a project. At the end of this debate, we will see if a rally is possible, ”he pleaded. “We are ready to discuss a Nupes list in the Europeans, but it is the substance that will determine the rest”, supported Mr. Jouvet.
“It would be a mistake to leave separated”, had dropped the coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI), Manuel Bompard, in an interview with the Journal du dimanche (JDD) on April 16, suggesting to his Nupes partners to open ” the discussion before the summer” and saying he was ready to discuss an environmentalist head of the list.
New act of the Nupes
The question of a single list for Europeans, however, meets with reluctance at Europe Ecologie ? Les Verts (EELV), where national secretary Marine Tondelier repeated her opposition to the hypothesis. The European “are proportional elections in one round”, during which “our voters, our sympathizers, our members claim to be able to put a green ballot in the ballot box”, she said again on Saturday on France inter.
At the same time, former party boss Julien Bayou opened the door on franceinfo to a common list, “on one condition”: to follow “an ecological, federalist line, to reorient Europe”. Ecologists and socialists are also calling for a new act by Nupes, created during the 2022 legislative elections and dominated by LFI, which won the largest battalion of deputies.
This alliance “must find a new lease of life. It must be our floor, never our ceiling, “said Mr. Jouvet in the JDD, pleading for its expansion. “By the summer, we also want to launch in all the departments of the “states general” of the left and ecology to see how to do better, “explained the one who also says he is in favor of a single candidacy on the left. in the presidential election of 2027.
But until then, “if there were to be a dissolution, it is quite clear that the distribution of constituencies could not be the same as today”, assured Mr. Jouvet, considering that “the reports of force” on the left “are not the same as after the presidential election”.