This weekend, in Villeurbanne (Rhône), there was the 79e Congress of the Socialist Party (PS). Olivier Faure was very happy because he was re-elected first secretary, with 72% of the vote, against Hélène Geoffroy, mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône). The journalists, hardly come in number to cover the event, rubbed shoulders with a thousand activists who followed the ten hours of debates, Saturday, September 18. But there was not Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, yet quasi-candidate of the PS in the presidential election of 2022, even if we only spoke of her.
“Ah, if Anne Hidalgo had come, we would have given her a superb ovation!, regrets Joëlle Portier, socialist activist, who came with Doudou, her Yorkshire. But she has not yet been nominated by the activists and she does not want to appear only as the candidate of the party. You know, parties are no longer popular. “ Joëlle was already present at the congress of Epinay (Seine-Saint-Denis), in 1971, for the creation of the PS, “The synthesis had been complicated, but we were so happy. So much had happened! “
In Villeurbanne, one does not feel exactly the same enthusiasm on the edge of the countryside, but loyalty is a value superior to all the others. “And then there was much worse, reassures Joëlle. 1993 [le PS n’avait plus que 57 députés à l’Assemblée nationale], 2002 with Jospin eliminated in the first round, 2017 and Hamon’s 6%… Hidalgo, I support her, of course! Well, it’s going to be difficult, I won’t hide it from you. “
“We know, it’s folded”
A few weeks ago, a relative of Olivier Faure confided that he feared a congress full of boredom and without stake. He was almost right. It was without counting on a strange suspense, during an inaccessible conclave. This happened on Saturday, and the meeting stretched almost beyond the closure of Lyon’s traffic jams. It was a question of adopting the methods of designation of the candidate for the election because in addition to Anne Hidalgo, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, the former first secretary of the PS, and Stéphane Le Foll, the mayor of Le Mans , have expressed their wish to compete for the nomination. But on one condition: that there be a televised debate between the candidates so that the points of view are expressed publicly. A format rejected by Anne Hidalgo.
None of the three protagonists was present in the Lyon suburbs, only their representatives. As indicated in World Stéphane Le Foll, a few days earlier, “We know, it’s folded, Anne Hidalgo will be invested. But it is badly folded. And we will notice it as we go along. I was asking for a debate, because we have never needed it so much, and there won’t be. We are no longer discussing anything at the PS. If it continues like this, the party is in danger of death ”. But for Olivier Faure, we must neither waste time nor take the risk of ” tear “ in prime time: “Anne Hidalgo is in the countryside, because she has the feeling that almost all of the PS supports her. Conversely, there are those who seek, through this investiture, to play placed and to take advantage of a television window to exist. “
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