the outgoing Olivier Faure winner with 50.83% according to the party

The duel between the outgoing first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, and his rival the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, reached a climax on the night of Thursday January 19 to Friday January 20, when they both claimed to be in the lead. of the vote of the members to become the new leader of the socialists.

But the party put an end to the suspense, announcing Friday morning that Olivier Faure was reappointed as head of the PS after winning the internal ballot with 50.83% of the vote, against 49.17% for his rival. The two camps, accusing each other of irregularities in the votes, have already announced appeals and requests for cancellations of votes in sections. A results commission is to meet on Friday.

Consequences on Nupes

“Olivier Faure won the ballot with certainty,” said his representative Pierre Jouvet, denouncing also “unacceptable destabilization” on the part of the opposing camp. Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol claimed that, out of 84% of the ballots counted, he had gathered 52.4% of the votes, against 47.6% for Olivier Faure.

“There is a favorable trend for us,” said the mayor of Rouen before the confirmation of Olivier Faure’s victory by the party. He also asks for “the cancellation of a certain number of results”, because of irregularities noted, in particular in the section of Liévin (approximately 300 votes).

Olivier Faure will be officially inducted at a congress in a week in Marseille. Contrary to the program of his opponents in the leadership of the party, he should not call into question the agreement concluded in May 2022 for the legislative elections with LFI, EELV and the PCF.

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, hostile to LFI

This alliance has made it possible to keep a group of 32 socialist deputies in the National Assembly, despite the historic failure in the presidential election of candidate Anne Hidalgo (1.7%). But it deeply divided the PS. Olivier Faure defends his strategy of an “exclusive” left alliance, the only way according to him to block the right and the far right in 2027.

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, more reserved on this agreement, does not hide his reluctance vis-à-vis the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. He has the support of the third candidate, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, clearly hostile to Nupes.

A battle of figures is to be expected for Friday, 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 members then placed Olivier Faure in the lead with 49.15% of the vote, against 30.51% for Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, and 20.34% for Hélène Geoffroy.

“The party is very sick”

In the polling station of the Pantin section, Djamel Benmokhtar, a member for 7 years, chose Olivier Faure, “who can put the PS back on track”, believing that the Nupes, “we should have done it before”.

“The party is very sick”, underlines for his part Abdou N., member for “more than 20 years”, who voted “for the party to be reinvigorated”, and considers that it is necessary “to bring together the whole left”.

Supported by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, the president of Occitanie Carole Delga and the ex-president François Hollande, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol claims to be the only one who can gather, on a “central path”.

Olivier Faure, “against turning back”

For Olivier Faure, the results of the first vote prove that only 20% of members voted against Nupes, in fact confirming his line. “Are the 80% of members who voted against the rollback going to vote on Thursday for the return of the elephants? “, which are for a lot behind Hélène Geoffroy, he asked Monday.

His entourage affirms that he already has “an absolute majority in the national council” (a sort of training parliament), thanks to the support of at least 60 first federal secretaries, who account for a third in the composition of the advice. This is a projection, the vote of the first federals will not take place until February.

---

Source

---