For those of you who follow French politics through this blog, the following explanation might be useful. A lot of people often ask me what will happen at the next congress of the mother party of MJS, the so-called Parti Socialiste. So i will try to give you some information, about the process and about what is going on.. Do not hesitate to ask me questions or to react if you don't agree. Of course, my point of view is subjective..The first thing to know is that all our debates are structured around political texts. I know the media focuses mainly on the personal fight (Fabius vs Hollande vs Strauss-Kahn). But behind these political fights, we have also, sometimes, political ideas and, always, political papers. The most important ones are the "motion". Each member of the Socialist Party has, after a debate at all the level of the party, the possibility to vote for one motion. If a motion has the absolute majority, this motion can decide to keep for themself the leadership. If not, the congress has to find the "Synthèse". This is the magic of our congress, when during the Saturday night, the main political actors of the party spend their night to find a political agreement both on a position paper and on positions inside of the leadership.
Last week-end, we had a national council of the party. It was one of the most important one because it was the announcement of the "motions". So we will have 5 motions.
The first one is leaded by François Hollande. It is more or less the actual majority of the Party. Most of the leaders of the PS you may know signed this motion. Dominique Strauss-Khan, Jack Lang, Martine Aubry, Bertrand Delanoe, Ségolène Royal... All this people were in favour of the European constitution. Their main problems is they often disagree between themselves. Straus-Kahn, for example, recently proposed to raise the TVA (direct tax). All the others are against. The other problem is that nearby all the "presidentiables" (the peoples that can be candidate at the next presidential elections) are coming from this same motion. The name of the motion is "Volonté, Verité, Unité" (Will, truth and unity). They expect to win 55% of the votes. Below 50% it will be very difficult for them to keep the majority, the two other motions calling for an "alternative majority".
The second one is the so-called "Nouveau Parti Socialiste" leaded by Arnaud Montebourg, Vincent Peillon and Benoit Hamon. They are more or less the reformer of the party. They call for a younger party, closer to the citizens. At the political level, they push for a "new Republic" (la VIe République) and a European Federal Republic. On social and economic issues they are considered more on the left than the motion of François Hollande. It is mainly people who were against the European constitution. However the "Nouveau Parti Socialiste" decided to respect the democratic decision of the Party and to not campaign. Recently (one day before the national council of the party), Henri Emmanuelli decided to join the motion. Henri Emmanuelli is a very old figure of the left of the PS since a very long time. He was first secretary of the party in 1994. As Vincent Peillon said, "it is the alliance between the modern and the archaic"... (i am not sure Henri appreciated). They expect to make 25%. Personally, i am closed to this motion. I will sign it.
The third one is called "Bring together on the left". It is the motion of Laurent Fabius. Laurent Fabius was in the same majority of François Hollande until the campaign on the European constitution. He left the majority when Hollande push him out after the victory of the NO. We have also in the same motion Jean-Luc Melanchon, who was before with Henri Emmanuelli in a political group called "Nouveau Monde", Alain Vidalies or Marie-Noëlle Lienman.
Laurent Fabius wanted to have a bigger coalition with all the socialists which were in favour of the NO. The "Nouveau Parti Socialiste" refuse for two main reasons : (1) the debate on the European Constitution is over, we have to go beyond, (2) the congress is not the place to elect our candidate for the Presidential election.
There are two other smaller motion, the first one of Jean-Marie Bocquel, called "for a liberal-socialism" (as you could imagine, it is a very very tiny group inside PS ;-) and the other one called "Utopia" which is in favour of other development models. They made 1% at the last congress process.
Now, we will vote. According to the vote on the motions, we will elect delegates for the congress which will be held in Le Mans between the 18th and the 20th of November. Here we will know which is the new majority of the Party...
After this, and only after this, we will choose our candidate, according to the political line of the Party. Even if the actual majority wins the congress, everything is possible. Inside of the motion of Hollande, we have Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Jack Lang and Martine Aubry who are already candidate. The other candidate is Laurent Fabius. Of course, many others will probably want to run...
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