Paris (AFP)

In the aftermath of regional which consolidated the socialist territorial anchoring, the PS and the ecologists dispute the legitimacy to gather behind them the non-Mélenchonist left in the presidential election of 2022.

Already offensive last Monday, the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure did not mince words in the media during his analysis of the second round by pointing to a "glass ceiling, or even a green ceiling" reached by environmentalists when they lead the union.

An allusion to the defeats of the gatherings of the left led by the Greens in Île-de-France, Pays de la Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Hauts-de-France.

Conversely, the five outgoing socialist presidents have retained their region, with or without the support of environmentalists.

The member of the national office of the party François Kalfon was even clearer by calling on RFI for a "socialist candidate" in 2022, "for the reason that the French rather gave discharge yesterday" to the PS.

"The Greens wanted a primary, they got it, they lost it," sneers a member of the socialist leadership.

What annoy some environmentalists quite a bit.

"The regions where the Socialists let us lead were very hard to find, against the right and the extreme right," argues the MEP and former number one of the Greens David Cormand, to AFP.

"And if we did not win, it is because it is on the side of the PS that it collapsed" when they were not at the helm, he adds, attributing the socialist successes to the "outgoing bonus" which also benefited the right.

- Three corridors -

Still, the results are disappointing for environmentalists, who dreamed of winning one, or even two regions after successful Europeans in 2019 and municipal elections in 2020.

"The regional do not confirm leadership for ecology", regrets Alain Coulombel, spokesperson and member of the left wing of the executive board of EELV.

That the socialists did without environmentalists in the between-towers in Occitanie, Brittany and New Aquitaine has "remained in the throat" of EELV activists, testifies Alain Coulombel.

"The PS has found its old hegemonic reflexes, we just demanded proportionality from the first round in the merger of the lists, which we did when we were first".

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This is proof, according to David Cormand, that "the PS has lost in substantive centrality, and in political centrality, in the capacity to unite".

"The two parties are pulling the cover but the question of leadership is not settled," observes political scientist Rémi Lefebvre, professor at the University of Lille.

"The Greens had gained the upper hand in the municipal elections but today they have no victory and the PS keeps its five regions".

"More and more people said to themselves + basically, the ecologists are the new force, they are the only ones who bring an ideological renewal to a PS stuck on social democracy +", confirms the political scientist Roland Cayrol on LCP .

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"But here, it is not clear that the environmentalists are doing better than the socialists" and "many socialists now believe that it is not obvious that we should give in to the environmentalists".

Alain Coulombel fears "that the discussions will now be much more tense with the Socialists, especially as Olivier Faure will have to face the caciques of his party at the PS congress in September".

Environmentalists will not have their heads in the negotiations either, because the chapter of their internal primary in September now opens for them.

The mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle is holding a press conference on Wednesday to, probably, declare himself a candidate.

As for the rebellious France, it has already taken its own corridor with the declaration of candidacy for the presidential election in November by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came fourth in 2017 (19.58%).

But a series of poor results in the intermediate elections and polls putting him sometimes in the lead, sometimes neck and neck with contenders on the left, make it difficult to predict the place he will have in 2002.

© 2021 AFP