Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol will face Thursday the first outgoing secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, in the second round of the Congress of the PS.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
Approaching the Congress of the Socialist Party (PS), François Hollande made his choice. The former President of the Republic announced on Monday January 16 that he would vote Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol to take the lead of the Socialist Party, judging that a victory of the first outgoing secretary Olivier Faure, supporter of the Alliance with Insoumise France, would be “unfortunate”.
“It seems to me to be the one who can bring together the socialists and, while being attached to the Union of the left, to ensure that the Socialist Party exists,” said Hollande about Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol , at the microphone of France inter.
The ex-socialist president (2012-2017) is considered to be close to the line of the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, Hélène Geoffroy, who leads the sling against the participation of the PS in the new Ecological People’s Union and Social (Nuts) dominated by the movement of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But the orientation text of Hélène Geoffroy arrived third for the party congress at the end of January, with 20.34 % of the votes of the members, behind those of Olivier Faure (49.15 %) and Nicolas Meyer-Rossignol (30.51 %). The latter two will compete for the position of first secretary, Thursday in a second round.
a pension reform at the “bad” moment
Questioned in the first place of the current boss of the PS, François Hollande, who left the Elysée in 2017, replied: “I do not salute this performance.” “Five years ago, the Socialist Party , it was about 80,000 members, today, it’s half “; “Of the 40,000, there are half of them who came to vote”; “Of the 20,000, there are half of it who came to vote, barely, for Olivier Faure. You are talking about a performance!”, He quipped.
Asked about the pension reform wanted by Emmanuel Macron, his predecessor said she was neither urgent nor just. “That there is a need to correct” the system, “yes, of course, but immediately? When the French are experiencing strong inflation, an energy crisis, a possible recession, the war in Ukraine ? “, He asked. “There is no good time for the pension reform, yes, but there is bad. This one is a bad time,” he insisted, saying to expect a “very strong “mobilization of opponents Thursday.