Blois (AFP)

Gathered in Blois for their political comeback, the Socialists pleaded for the "rally" with the ecologists for a victory in 2022, but this "complicated union" to be implemented is encountering resistance even internally.

"We no longer have time for mediocre calculations, individual strategies," said Olivier Faure, the number one socialist, on Saturday, in his speech to the activists. He hopes to reiterate at the departmental and regional levels in 2021, then in the presidential election, an alliance strategy that has proved successful in the municipal elections.

The PS, allied with EELV and other left parties (PCF, Generations ...) did more than consolidate its positions, by gaining 14 cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants and 84 of more than 20,000. The union has also proved to be a winner for the Greens (9 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants).

For the following deadlines, the First Secretary wants to unfold the same scenario because "without the rally, there is no victory" possible. He says he is ready to line up, including in 2022, behind "whoever is best placed". So "the common presidential candidate will not be environmentalist, not socialist, not rebellious, not radical. He will be all of these at the same time or he will not win."

But "the union is complicated and is being built step by step," recognizes Corinne Narassiguin, number two of the PS.

The party invited two EELV officials to Blois, MEP Yannick Jadot and the mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle, both of whom have expressed their appetite for the presidential election.

Mr. Jadot, who struck out of his vocabulary the word "left", asked his party to choose its candidate "before next January". The second was displayed last weekend alongside the boss of the Insoumis, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

EELV could be tempted by the call launched Saturday by LFI for "joint programs" for departmental and regional. An appeal launched to several leftist formations ... but not to the PS.

At the headliners of EELV, Mr. Faure recalls that "there are pride and egos, but when we practice politics, we must hide behind an idea bigger than ourselves, behind the general interest ".

Message received? Mr. Jadot said on Saturday that "if we don't go together, it's Macron who wins".

- "Software change"? -

There are many convergences between socialists (whose logo was changed in 2015 by a "PS, social-ecology" alongside a stylized rose), and Greens: fight against global warming, inequalities, for gender equality / women ... But the differences remain acute.

This is what again appeared on Saturday during the "productivism trial", one of the stumbling blocks between Roses and Greens, during which Clémentine Autain (LFI) played the role of prosecutor, Julien Bayou (EELV) that of great witness, and Christian Eckert, former socialist minister, that of defense lawyer.

"Could productivism have virtues" and has it not resulted in a certain "democratization" (by allowing wide access to consumer goods), asks "Me Eckert"?

"A change of logo is not enough to demonstrate a change in software", sharply replied Mr. Bayou, who pleaded last weekend, during the Summer Days of environmentalists in Pantin, for "prosperity without growth ", formula qualified as" oxymoron "by Stéphane Le Foll, mayor PS of Le Mans, ex-minister.

If "the left after" gets underway as best it can, the left before, it does not give up. Thus Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, former number one of the PS, is organizing on September 19 in Paris the national convention of his network, New Society. He wants "a new home: that of the new socialists", with "an enormous job of redefining" identity. Any alliance with the Greens can only intervene "once this work is done".

Mr. Le Foll also thinks that it is necessary "to rebuild the PS, to reopen a cycle". But the party "must not step aside in favor of the Greens", he urges in an interview with the JDD, noting too many "substantive differences" with environmentalists who "do not meet the aspirations of a large part Population".

© 2020 AFP