Olivier Faure: “The open primaries are no longer in season” – Le Monde

The first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, will propose a modification of the statutes during the congress of September 18 and 19 in Villeurbanne (Rhône) to reserve the primary for activists. If he officially supports the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, he rejects the accusations of “blocked vote” in his favor.

Eight months before the presidential election, all of the left-wing forces peaked at 20% in the polls. Yet the nomination papers do not stop. Why, in this context, present a socialist candidate for the presidential election?

Since 1974, no opinion poll at this point in the campaign has been predictive of the outcome. The truth of a presidential election lies somewhere between January and March. Something happens, counters are reset to zero, there are no more favorites, no designated challenger, the cards are reshuffled and it is then that candidatures like those of Jospin and Chirac in 1995, Bayrou prevail. in 2007, Macron and Mélenchon in 2017 …

You have formalized your support for Anne Hidalgo. How can she be the Socialist Party’s candidate for the presidential election? For the time being, the statutes provide for the organization of a citizen primary open to all.

The open primaries, as we have known them twice (in 2011 and 2016), are no longer in season. It is a machine for crushing candidates, a machine for dissensus, where, on the contrary, in a moment like this, we must seek unity and unification. I proposed a new method so that activists can choose their candidate. If they vote on the modification of the statutes which is suggested to them, there will therefore be a separate vote of the congress and they will be the ultimate arbiters to decide between the candidatures which will be proposed to them.

The motion you are bringing to the congress clearly mentions Anne Hidalgo as the desired candidate. Is this not to presume the vote of the militants, or even, as some of your detractors claim, to organize a blocked vote?

It is absurd this story of blocked vote since there will be, later, another clearly disjointed vote. But how can we imagine that someone who is running to lead the Socialist Party, seven months before the presidential election, has nothing to say about the project or the person to embody it? Transparency assumes that everyone says what their preference is. I said mine.

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