Long decay of Socialist Party

The PS, from which two Presidents of the Republic came, had to bow to the “rebellious” to hope to survive a little.

Analysis. A historical political moment. Saturday, May 7, in Aubervilliers, the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, L’Echine bent, comes to bring his ecot to the new popular, social and ecological union (Nuts). And grant the most expensive wish of a hegemonic melenchon Jean-Luc on the left: Acting the surrender of the PS. A cathartic political moment. Going up to the rostrum of the Nuts, Olivier Faure hopes to save his party by bringing him back to his reality of the moment: he is only a minority and supplementary force of the radical fringe of the left. Going down from the gallery, he knows that he will have to face the deletion trial of an opposition which considers this inconceivable submission.

Olivier Faure is “notorious unknown”, in his own words. The name of her official opponent, Hélène Geoffroy, mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône), does not say much to many people. Another time, other personalities. In 1969, it was Pierre Mauroy who proposed to bury the venerable French section of the Ouvrière International (SFIO), of which he was then deputy secretary general. Instead of a marginalized party during the events of May 68, he proposed to create, on May 4, 1969, at the Congress of Alfortville, the new Socialist Party. Who designates the mayor of Marseille, Gaston Deferre, candidate for the presidential election. A first stone, even if it weighs only 5 %. Thirteen years later, Pierre Mauroy will become Prime Minister, and Gaston Defferre, Minister of the Interior.

Because in June 1971, the Epinay refoundation congress consecrated the rally of the socialists behind François Mitterrand around a unitary strategy. On June 22, 1972, a common government program was concluded with the French Communist Party (PCF). The PS is intended to be “revolutionary” to “transform capitalist society into a collectivist company”. As early as 1974, François Mitterrand went up to Michel Rocard, who came from the radical left. But the first succeeds in the tour de force to pass the second for a reformist, a big word among the socialists.

The end of utopia in 1983

May 10, 1981 devotes François Mitterrand. In 1982, the PS had 213,584 members, compared to 80,300 in 1971. But the turning point of rigor, in 1983, marked the end of utopia. After a first cohabitation started in 1986, the re -elected president took care to complete his old enemy by appointing him Docile Prime Minister in 1988, then torpulating him during the 1993 European elections.

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/Media reports.