Politics. Socialist Party Congress: Members vote, who will be the next First Secretary?

Who will be the new first secretary of the Socialist Party, two years before the next presidential election? Some 40,000 Socialist members are being called to the polls this Tuesday, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., in the party's branches, to choose a motion, the party's next policy text. The result will define the balance of power within its institutions.

Three motions, defended by the incumbent Olivier Faure and his rivals, the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud , are submitted to the vote of the members. The two candidates whose motions come out on top will be decided in a second round on June 5 before a Congress scheduled for June 13 to 15 in Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle).

The results won't be known until late Tuesday night, or even Wednesday morning. They risk being accused of cheating, as in 2023 at the Marseille Congress, where Olivier Faure narrowly defeated Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol after a dramatic drama and accusations of fraud. "There's no way 300 votes will separate us from victory," declared Parisian elected official Lamia El Aaraje, a close associate of Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, who has never accepted his defeat.

Olivier Faure, who has led the Socialist Party since 2018, advocates for the union of the non-Mélenchonist left for the 2027 presidential election, with a platform ranging from Place publique leader Raphaël Glucksmann to former LFI MP François Ruffin, with a view to a joint candidacy. "I will not forgive us for having, through our division, rolled out the red carpet for the far right," he explains, calling on activists to maintain "continuity" with a line that has put the Socialist Party "at the heart of the left."

But Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol's camp accuses the man who was one of the architects of the left-wing Nupes (in 2022) and New Popular Front (in 2024) agreements of "ambiguity" towards Jean-Luc Mélenchon, from whom he has nevertheless distanced himself for several months. The mayor of Rouen defends "the socialist affirmation" and advocates the creation of a large socialist party (a "GPS") bringing together "those who are in the PS and those who are outside", such as Raphaël Glucksmann, Benoît Hamon or Bernard Cazeneuve. From this confederation will emerge a social-democratic candidate for 2027, he believes, judging it premature to talk about a primary before the municipal elections .

In a video addressed to activists this Tuesday, the Rouen mayor said he wanted to bring back to the Socialist Party "all those who are just waiting for this," and who have left the party in recent years, reaching "100,000 activists." Above all, he accused Olivier Faure of "clan-like management" and a lack of work within the party.

Supporters of the outgoing First Secretary respond that Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol has gathered around him a disparate coalition of all the "anti-Faure" crowd, from the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, Hélène Geoffroy, to the president of Occitanie, Carole Delga, to the deputy of Eure, Philippe Brun, and the mayor of Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane. And they predict a candidacy by former President François Hollande in 2027, if the mayor of Rouen wins the congress.

The third-placed member of the congress, Boris Vallaud, who criticized the party's "division" under the Faure era, claims to be the candidate of "reconciliation" and "doctrine." He notably developed the concept of "decommodification" of society and launched a training institute and an internal media outlet. On France 2 radio this Tuesday, he explained that he was "the only one to make a real proposal for unity," and called on activists to choose "the perspective of the best" against the far right.

Whatever his score - 15 to 20% according to his rivals - he could be kingmaker if he decides to fall in behind one of his opponents in the second round.