Q: What is your assessment of Olivier Faure's mandate?

A: I said it at the Congress of Villeurbanne, two years ago, Olivier Faure was the First Secretary of the erasure of the Socialist Party, by a lack of work and incarnation of our ideas.

We have no project, and it was seen in the presidential election, we were not ready.

Olivier Faure is responsible for our 1.74%.

Since the quinquennium of François Hollande, we have not worked on what fractured us during the quinquennium and on the subjects which concern the French.

In the legislative elections, there was a subservience to LFI (with Nupes, editor's note), which is reflected in particular in the number of women deputies, less important than in previous mandates.

We have backed down from our principles.

We dissolved into the sound and fury of LFI (...).

In the National Assembly, we let Mélenchon theorize the contribution of the votes of the RN to bring down the government.

We have been in this confusion.

The French no longer know what the socialists are.

And by sticking to the left of protest carried by Mélenchon, we renounce to arrive one day at the responsibilities (...) If Olivier Faure wins, the PS will disappear in LFI.

Q: If you are elected head of the PS, what are the main measures you will put in place?

A: Obviously, we will suspend our participation in Nupes.

But beyond that, I want to operate a triple gathering, which will allow us to work on the substance.

First, a rally of socialists.

There are more socialists outside the PS than in the party, and classic PS voters now vote for LFI, LREM or EELV.

In addition, we have our 79 comrades suspended by the national leadership (the "dissidents" of the Nupes in the legislative elections, Editor's note).

The second gathering consists of addressing all categories of French people.

Today we only speak to the wealthiest, but little to the working classes and rural areas.

The challenge is what I called the "Class Front", using a formula from François Mitterrand: how to remake an alliance of the popular, middle and more favored classes around a social project.

In our orientation text, we have broken down the subjects which may have split on the left, which are of concern to the French, and on which we must provide answers: the subject of school, -we must rework the way in which the education system works-, the question of work, the ecological transition, which today only applies to people who are well.

There are also issues of security, immigration and Europe.

Hélène Geoffroy after a meeting of the PS National Council in Ivry-sur-Seine in Val-de-Marne, May 5, 2022 © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP / Archives

The third gathering is to unite the left but around a project contract.

Today, we are not in the union of the left, we are following a drift which in certain aspects is populist.

It's not the left.

Q: What sets you apart from the third candidate, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol?

A: I have been saying for two years that we are not working, that we are at an impasse (…) I am delighted that activists who were close to Olivier Faure, like Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, are making the same analysis. on the balance sheet.

Now, we must also clarify the question of the Nupes: the subject is not + are we for or against the union of the left? +, the question is whether Olivier Faure's strategy allows, as he says, to launch the PS towards more favorable skies, or if as I say, it causes its disappearance.

I say that we must put a stop to this strategy.

I am the candidate for consistency and clarity, I voted against the Nupes agreement, which is not the case for Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol's "Third Way".

© 2023 AFP