"The debate in this party (around Nupes) has been lively", admitted to the press the first secretary, who expressed the desire for an alliance with LFI, EELV and the PCF for the legislative elections, despite the opposition of certain "elephants" of the party.

"The time has come to overcome this conflict. Some are seeking to maintain it and organize a rearguard debate in congress", which should take place early next year, he underlined, without citing names. name, on the second day of the party's summer universities.

Its opponents, hostile to the Nupes, are beginning to gather for the future congress and the leader of the minority current, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, has confirmed that she will carry a project to "refound" the party and and take the lead by "unifying those who have the same vision of a central PS".

"Could it be summed up as anything but Faure? It could," ex-first secretary Jean-Christophe Cambadélis told the press.

"Activists do not want to know how we get out of the agreement, but how we strengthen it (...) by expanding it", assured Olivier Faure for his part.

Replying to "those who repeat that we are + the left of government +", he underlines that "if we want to govern again, we must first be the left", and calls on the socialists to be "the best" if they want that the balance of power changes within Nupes, where LFI is in the majority.

PS spokesman Pierre Jouvet, close to the first secretary, says he is "reasonably optimistic" for the congress because "Olivier Faure has gained credibility with the general public".

"If we want to reaffirm the PS on the left, now is not the time to give another face to the head of the party", summarizes the mayor of Cintegabelle (Haute-Garonne) Sébastien Vincini.

For Senator Patrick Kanner, "it all depends on how Olivier will position himself vis-à-vis LFI".

But he notes, for the moment, "a speech of affirmation of the socialist identity", in particular with the proposal of Mr. Faure of a referendum of initiative shared on the super-profits.

"He did not ask the opinion of LFI, to show that the Nupes is not the caporalization of the different parties", argues Mr. Kanner.

"Perilous but thrilling"

"I don't really see who would oppose (this RIP)", notes Olivier Faure, ready to do battle at the start of the school year in the face of "major disruptions that are coming" (social, climatic, etc.) and "to the very weak of the government".

Particularly worried about the climate issue, this father of an 8-year-old child says he is "obsessed" with what the latter might think in 20 years.

"I don't see how I could look at myself in a mirror if I wasn't one of those who do everything to make things really change" for the climate, he confided.

For Benjamin, a 33-year-old Parisian activist, Olivier Faure "radiates from Nupes".

Himself a member of a support group for the presidential campaign of Christiane Taubira, he says he is satisfied with this alliance which, according to him, opens "a surely perilous but exciting path".

Before his big speech expected in front of the activists at the end of the day, the First Secretary attended a debate between Nupes partners, which notably brought together the leader of the PS deputy Boris Vallaud, the European deputy Yannick Jadot and the deputy LFI Clémentine Autain.

The latter also called for Nupes to engage in the many parliamentary battles of the start of the school year and in "a social protest", in the street, with a large march that LFI wishes to organize.

Without formal agreement of the other partners for the moment.

© 2022 AFP