Socialist activists largely validated, on the night of Thursday February 8 to Wednesday February 9, their party’s list for the European elections, which will be led by the leader of Place publique, Raphaël Glucksmann.
According to provisional results communicated by the Socialist Party (PS) to Agence France-Presse (AFP) overnight, activists adopted the list “with nearly 80% of the votes”. Raphaël Glucksmann is now officially the PS candidate, as he was in 2019, when he received 6.19% of the vote. A formal ratification of the results is scheduled for Saturday, February 10.
But the PS and Place publique have still not reached an agreement, particularly regarding the number of places reserved for the small party on the list. Credited, according to polls, with between 8% and 10% of the votes, this alliance can aim for the moment to send around ten MEPs to Brussels and Strasbourg. But Place publique is demanding three eligible places, while the PS only wants to grant it two: those of Raphaël Glucksmann and Aurore Lalucq, outgoing MEP.
“We have a very clear request, it will succeed,” assures Mr. Glucksmann’s entourage. The 44-year-old essayist, resolutely pro-European, can boast of having succeeded in five years in being identified in the European Parliament through his struggles, in particular the cause of the Uighurs in China or his unreserved support for Ukraine . On the PS side, the boss, Olivier Faure, emphasizes that Mr. Glucksmann is the ideal candidate and “the most followed politician on Instagram”.
A danger for its competitors on the left
Raphaël Glucksmann is also seen as a danger by his competitors on the left, Léon Deffontaines, head of the list of the French Communist Party, accusing him “of embodying social democracy which has always adapted very well to the liberal model”, and La France insoumise, through the voice of its deputy François Ruffin, accusing him of being “above ground and disconnected”.
The MEP, son of the philosopher André Glucksmann and companion of the journalist Léa Salamé, suffers from an image of “Parisian”, which he tries to correct, promising to go “everywhere” on the ground, including where the left is accused of having “betrayed”.
The Socialist Party now wants to be on the offensive. “It is a united party which this evening very largely adopts the list of socialist candidates who will lead the battle for the European elections,” welcomed the PS in a short declaration. He particularly praised the good scores of federations “where we doubted a favorable result”, because they were dominated by internal currents opposed to Olivier Faure, such as those of Paris (80%), Hérault (nearly 70 %), and the Occitanie region (70%).
The casting had, in fact, caused a stir in the party. Several socialist leaders have particularly criticized a lack of diversity and representatives of the working classes in an eligible position. The president of Occitanie, Carole Delga, who considered her political movement poorly served, had thus criticized “a disconnection” of the list from the reality of the French.
