40 years of the election of Mitterrand: "The PS has nothing to celebrate other than a disappeared world"

40 years ago to the day, François Mitterrand was elected President of the Republic.

A considerable event ...

"Yes, for France of course with an explosion of joy from the left, a shock for the right - which had never lost power since the advent of the Fifth Republic - but also an earthquake abroad , in Europe and in the United States especially (at the time, François Mitterrand had appointed Communist ministers to the government, a unique case in the West). A historic day, therefore, and for the Socialist Party (PS), a kind of 'apogee.

What is strange is that this fortieth anniversary is absolutely not celebrated at the height of what this event was: a conference on Sunday with some elephants from the PS, including François Hollande, and a round table this Monday with Olivier Faure , the current number 1 of the party.

Conference, round table ... It really smacks of depression.

Why this discretion?

Because the PS has nothing to celebrate other than a vanished world. And nostalgia, for a political party, is not very selling. 40 years ago, the left united behind the PS made more than 50% of the votes; today, the polls promise him a loss of half of his forces at about 25% of the vote, a historically low level. And if we only look at the PS, it is even worse: while François Mitterrand had approached 35% of the vote during his re-election, in 1988, the last PS candidate in a presidential election, Benoît Hamon, made the score staggering 6.4%.

It was probably not an accident since current polls give between 6 and 7% for the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

When he had left the Elysee Palace for good, at the end of his two terms of office, François Mitterrand had trumpeted that "the PS was now the party of alternation".

This was true with François Hollande.

But that is in the past.

You mean that the PS will no longer be able to access power?

This is most likely, indeed.

Socialism is lost, it no longer rules the world.

In France, the socialists were robbed by the Greens and the rebels, while the Communist Party, which had largely contributed to the victory of the left in 1981, is now dwarfed.

Ten years ago, at the time of the thirtieth anniversary of François Mitterrand's accession to power, the PS was preparing to take control of the National Assembly, the Senate, the Elysee and Matignon, as well as 'a majority of departments and a considerable number of very large towns.

All of this (apart from a few large town halls) has been swept away.

Game over.

Can the PS not reinvent itself, as a party or as a doctrine?

Why not, but that would require him to embody hope again. However, it is other left-wing political movements that have recovered this particular alchemy, this energy, this hope which can fuel victory. This Monday, the Socialists discreetly celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the election of François Mitterrand. As things are going, the PS will no longer be there for the fiftieth anniversary. "