Socialist Party Congress: Olivier Faure officially re-elected first secretary with 51.15% of the vote

Olivier Faure was officially re-elected first secretary of the Socialist Party on Saturday with 51.15% of the vote, on the second day of the party's congress in Nancy.

His victory, against his rival Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the mayor of Rouen, was confirmed (at 50.9%) following the vote by activists on June 5, but the results revealed at that time did not include the vote in certain overseas territories, such as Guadeloupe and Martinique.

With a raised pink card in hand, the congress delegates ratified the official results: out of 25,164 voters (and 24,809 cast), Olivier Faure obtained 51.15% of the votes (12,689 votes), compared to 48.85% for Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol (12,120 votes).

The first secretary, re-elected for the fourth time as head of the Socialist Party, must now reconcile a divided party, particularly on the strategy for the presidential election.

He, like Boris Vallaud, the third man in the congress, advocates a joint candidacy of the non-Mélenchonist left for 2027, ranging from the leader of Place publique Raphaël Glucksmann to the former LFI deputy François Ruffin.

"Common synthesis"

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, for his part, is defending a candidacy from "a large Socialist Party" bringing together the Socialists and those who gravitate around them, such as Bernard Cazeneuve and Raphaël Glucksmann.

In an attempt to unite the party, the first secretary said on Friday that he was "open to the leadership including people from different political backgrounds."

"It doesn't bother me at all, on one condition: that the debate decided by Congress remains decided by Congress. We don't replay Congress every week," he warned in a statement to AFP.

His opponent is demanding a "joint synthesis" of the three opposing orientation texts, and is demanding that the party affirm that there will be "no alliance with LFI, neither in the municipal elections, nor in the legislative elections (even in the event of dissolution), nor in the upcoming presidential elections."

Olivier Faure assured that the Socialist Party would "not support Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the presidential election" and that there would be no national agreement with the Insoumis in the municipal elections.