Tuesday September 26, in the beautiful Senate rooms which serve as a restaurant, around ten socialist senators close to Olivier Faure had lunch together. They wanted to share a first meal after the election of some of them, like PS number two Corinne Narassiguin. But others saw another symbol: “Ten people came from Ivry [headquarters of the Socialist Party, Editor’s note] to symbolically take possession of the place. It was the phalanx! » laughs a socialist senator accustomed to the mysteries of the Luxembourg Palace. The show of force failed: Patrick Kanner, opponent of Olivier Faure, was re-elected at the head of the PS group. The senator from the North beat his rival from Landes Éric Kerrouche, close to the first secretary.
The battle of the two “Ks” was also a rivalry between the pro and anti-Nupes. Kanner has never hidden his animosity towards the agreement signed with the Insoumis the day after the 2022 presidential election. He opposed Olivier Faure, architect of the marriage of convenience with LFI, the PCF and EELV, during the Marseille congress at the start of the year. The first secretary therefore worked to weaken the senator from the North. Kanner did not have an easy time winning in the North: Martine Aubry, still influential in Lille, wanted to impose Audrey Linkenheld on the list, which led Martine Filleul, ousted, to present a list dissident socialist. Kanner was nevertheless re-elected.
Almost everywhere in France, Olivier Faure’s rivals noted that the PS leadership often favored socialist candidates close to Faure in agreements with other left-wing parties. “The leadership gave the impression of seeking revenge from Congress,” notes a person close to Kanner. Olivier Faure’s supporters would thus have rolled mechanics. “Several party leaders, who are also senators, made us understand that the group in the Senate would now be theirs and that we had to obey them with our finger and eye! » confides a senator.
Others testify to phone calls made by PS executives to vote in favor of Éric Kerrouche. However, senators do not like intrusions, even less pressure from outside. “It was Olivier Faure who killed Kerrouche,” assures an old hand at the Luxembourg Palace.
With 38 votes in his favor, compared to 25 for Éric Kerrouche, Patrick Kanner won by quite a margin. He was able to count on the contribution of around fifteen senators close to Rachid Temal, once a candidate for the position of president of the group. The latter, former first interim secretary of the Socialist Party, wants to put the confrontation between pro and anti-Nupes into perspective. “No one campaigned with their Nupes flag, on the contrary: all the candidates ran under the PS label,” observes Rachid Temal.
The very urban Patrick Kanner does not intend to press where it hurts. “The group judged that I could be consensual in fighting the right with clarity,” explained the senator from the North to Le Figaro just after his re-election at the head of the group. He doesn’t say it, but he always intends to oppose Nupes, clearly or not…
