Olivier Faure re-elected first secretary of the Socialist Party against Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol

Two years before the presidential election, the approximately 40,000 Socialist Party activists were called to vote this Thursday, June 5, to choose who, between Olivier Faure and Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, would take the reins of the party with the rose . Their choice fell on the outgoing first secretary at the expense of the mayor of Rouen: Olivier Faure obtained 50.9% of the vote against 49.1% for his rival.

In the first round, Olivier Faure (42.21% of the vote) narrowly edged out Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol (40.38%). Following the vote, the third candidate, Boris Vallaud, leader of the Socialist deputies (17.41%), announced that he would vote for Olivier Faure in the next round, while specifying that this was not a voting instruction addressed to his supporters, but a "personal choice."

"Thank you to the activists who have renewed their trust in me this evening," Olivier Faure said on X.

The main issue at the heart of this election was the Socialist Party's strategy of uniting the left in the run-up to the 2027 presidential election. While they agreed on the principle, Olivier Faure and Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol disagreed on the exact scope of such a union.

After advocating an alliance with La France Insoumise for the last two legislative elections, in 2022 and 2024, Olivier Faure advocated a very broad union uniting the entire non-Mélenchonist left. A spectrum stretching from Raphaël Glucksmann, the leader of Place Publique, to a former LFI member such as François Ruffin. And to designate the candidate representing this union, Olivier Faure advocated the organization of a primary.

Counting among his allies the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga and the mayor of Saint-Ouen Karim Bouamrane , Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol was himself opposed to any primary. He also considered that the best strategy for his party was to make it a "Great Socialist Party" aimed at bringing together "those who are in the PS and those who are outside" such as Raphaël Glucksmann, Benoît Hamon or the former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and his close associates also criticized Olivier Faure for managing the Socialist Party in a "clan-like" manner and for showing "ambiguity" toward Jean-Luc Mélenchon and LFI, while Olivier Faure has made numerous statements in recent months to distance himself from the leader of La France Insoumise.