"We negotiated all night. We continue", explained Pierre Jouvet, representative of the outgoing first secretary Olivier Faure, on his arrival Saturday morning at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, where the 80th congress of the socialist party has been held since Friday.
"We are going to discuss this morning again," said Senator David Assouline, representative for Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, who did not speak on his arrival.
For Pierre Jouvet, "Olivier Faure is first secretary today, he will be tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow".
Since the proclamation, last weekend, of the tight results of the vote of the militants placing Olivier Faure in the lead, with 51.09% of the votes, in front of Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol (48.91%), the latter disputes this victory of the first outgoing secretary, and denounces "fraud and irregularities", according to him, punishable by "prison".
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol still pleads for a four-headed leadership: he, Hélène Geoffroy, Olivier Faure and one of his relatives, the mayor of Nantes Johanna Rolland.
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol (c), former candidate for the post of First Secretary of the PS, arrives at his party's Congress on January 27, 2023 in Marseille © Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
If he recognizes that a first secretary is needed, “because of the statutes, he pleads for others to be appointed “delegated first secretaries”, with the same level of responsibility and collegial decision-making “by consensus”.
Olivier Faure, who claims to have obtained "a clear, but narrow victory", refuses any "collegiality" and offered his rivals to be "First deputy secretaries".
This battle for the post of first secretary has fractured the party, already weakened by the historic failure of its presidential candidate, Anne Hidalgo (1.7%).
© 2023 AFP