A surprise that will add confusion to the left: the former socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal announced on Friday her intention to lead a left “union” list with LFI in the next European elections.
“It is a question of launching a dynamic of union”, declared Ségolène Royal in front of the press, during the summer universities of La France insoumise in the Drôme. Could she lead this list herself? “That’s the idea,” she replied, adding that she had been thinking about this project since “before the summer”.
But union with whom? Indeed, after the ecologists and the communists, who have already designated their respective heads of lists for the European elections in June, the socialists are also preparing to leave alone.
PS boss Olivier Faure thus indicated on Friday that he did not see “what would make it possible to hope for a single list”, until his party decides on this point at the end of September.
“I respect everyone,” replied Ségolène Royal, citing in particular LFI and the young socialists as groups in favor of union with the Europeans.
“We need a Nupes list for the Europeans”, reacted the leader of LFI, Manuel Bompard, after his announcement. “As for the head of the list (…) it must be able to unite the forces of Nupes and carry its program”, he added, without commenting directly on the offers of services from the former socialist minister.
On X (ex-Twitter), the rebellious MP Raquel Garrido felt that Ségolène Royal “could be the missing piece that unblocks the situation”. “I hope she will succeed in uniting for the European election,” she added.
But in Châteauneuf-sur-Isère, the surprise candidacy did not generally arouse enthusiasm. “It’s his decision, his initiative,” said a figure from LFI. A simple “will” of Ségolène Royal “to exist”, breathed another voice of the movement.
Same story in Blois where the PS met. And where we rolled our eyes Friday night.
“Her statements are hers alone,” noted Boris Vallaud, leader of the Socialist deputies. Another socialist agrees: “It’s a personal, individual, concerted approach with no one. She makes Ségolène Royal”.
“If the left is not united with the next European (…) it will disappear, it will have been so disappointed in its division”, had estimated a little earlier the interested party, during a debate with Manuel Bompard.
During her Drôme day with the Insoumis, Ségolène Royal also spoke with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whom she had supported last year during the presidential election, and who strongly pleads for a union of the left with the Europeans.
Just like another unsuccessful former socialist presidential candidate, Benoit Hamon. Invited to the LFI meeting, the founder of Génération.s refuted “the argument that if we leave separately there might be four more deputies” in the European Parliament, because in any case “they would be in the minority”.
A rally in June 2024 would boost “dynamics” for the 2027 presidential election, he said.
On the environmental side, “the official position is that we have nothing to say” on the announcement of Ségolène Royal, said the entourage of Marine Tondelier.
During a conference at the end of the day, his only speech alone on stage during these summer universities, Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not address the initiative of the one who was his colleague in the government of Lionel Jospin in the early 2000s.
“If we do it right, united, we can win”, he simply hammered, before adding: “Either there will be a list of union, or there will be a list unitaries”.
The triple presidential candidate also joked about the “sense of appropriateness” of the Greens and denounced the “alternative truths” of Olivier Faure, confirming the stormy atmosphere on the left in this back to school.
On Saturday, all eyes will be on Blois, for Olivier Faure’s speech, and on Strasbourg, where the national secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, is to speak.
25/08/2023 21:40:54 – Châteauneuf-sur-Isère (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
