One of the artisans of the New Popular Social and Ecological Union (Nupes) won the first round of his bet. Olivier Faure, first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), came out on top on Sunday, June 12, in the 11th district of Seine-et-Marne.
In 2017, he managed to beat Amandine Rubinelli, the candidate of La République en Marche (LRM). He was then one of the 28 surviving deputies of the “Socialists and Related” group within the Hemicycle, after the rout of the PS. In 2012, when he arrived at the National Assembly, they were 295.
A child of “Dutchism”
It was in this context of the downgrading of the PS that he took over the management, like his mentor before him, François Hollande. For seven years, between 2000 and 2007, Olivier Faure had been his deputy chief of staff. It was the former head of state who had enabled him to obtain the socialist nomination in this 11th constituency of Seine-et-Marne, in 2012. At the head of the party, Mr. Faure is little attracted to little the wrath of the socialist “elephants” because of his choices: sale of the historic headquarters of the rue de Solférino, rapprochement with the ecologists, proposal to change the name of the party…
“When I say black, they say white. What is painful is to be permanently with people who just want to bring down the management at the cost of manipulation”, he regrets to Le Monde in May 2022. A few weeks before the first round of the legislative elections , Olivier Faure provoked the biggest crisis in recent years within the PS by committing the party to the Nupes.
At the height of the turbulence, on the eve of the PS National Council which was to validate the agreement, former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve also left the party, justifying wanting to remain “faithful to republican socialism”. Taking as an argument the demand for union among left-wing voters, Olivier Faure confronts some of the elected socialists who believe that a common program with La France insoumise is equivalent to denying the values of the PS.
