Paris (AFP)
The Minister of Public Accounts and ex-PS Olivier Dussopt was elected on Saturday at the head of the Territories of Progress party (TdP), which aims to carry the torch of "social democratic values" in the presidential majority.
Mr. Dussopt was appointed president of this formation, while the Minister for Housing Emmanuelle Wargon chairs the national council.
This small party on the left wing of the presidential camp met in congress in Bordeaux, in the presence of some 200 participants, out of around 2,000 claimed members.
They were able to hear several ministers close to their sensitivity such as Jean-Yves le Drian (Foreign Affairs), who founded the party in early 2020, or Florence Parly (Defense).
"We are in a unitary logic of the majority. Afterwards, each one will have its positions and will bring its contribution to the debate", declared Mr. Dussopt to the press.
This congress was held on the same day as the announcement, in Le Havre, of the launch of the party of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, Horizons, which aims to expand the presidential majority on the right.
For Ms. Wargon, TdP wants to bring "a new ambition for social democracy, which is clearly within the presidential majority, but which will have its own objectives, its own struggles within this majority".
In addition to bringing together elected officials and voters already committed to Emmanuel Macron, TdP intends, with the approach of the presidential election, to expand this base to "elected officials and voters who do not support today (the majority editor's note) but who will recognize themselves in this project, ”she continued.
Territories of Progress intends more particularly to make its voice heard on issues such as social mobility and "living together", ecological transition, the balance of institutions or major societal issues such as the end of life.
The party "will not position itself in opposition, but in contribution", assured Mrs. Wargon.
Mr. Dussopt, a member of the PS until his entry into government at the end of 2017, for his part rejected the idea of an imbalance in the balance sheet of the five-year term in favor of right-wing measures.
On many issues concerning disability, education or Social Security for example, "we have gone much further than what left-wing governments have done and left-wing activists hoped," he pleaded.
"Let us be proud of the social record of this five-year term. Social democracy continues to live with Emmanuel Macron", assured Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne on Twitter, in support.
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