A hundred socialist elected officials call for broadening the left's primary

In an open letter consulted this Tuesday by franceinfo, around a hundred socialist leaders and elected officials call for widening the primary of the left PS-Place Publique to, in particular, Marine Tondelier and François Ruffin. These parliamentarians, first federal secretaries or local elected officials, call for not being “afraid of democracy”.

“As soon as personalities like Matthieu Pigasse, Marine Tondelier, François Ruffin, or others, who would like to participate, recognize themselves in our political space, accept the rules and commit to respecting the result [of the primary], why close the door to them?”, ask the signatories. “Why draw up borders when we need to build bridges”, ask the authors of this open letter, including MPs Paul Christophle and Pierrick Courbon.

Monday on X, the Somme deputy François Ruffin said he was ready to join the primary. But Raphaël Glucksmann responded in the negative on Tuesday. “We don't change the rules during the game,” says the leader of Place publique on RTL, who recalls that socialist activists voted for the framework of the current primary.

The signatories of this letter judge that, through their approach, "it is not a question of supporting anyone nor prejudging the result. It is quite simply a question of allowing choice. Let us not be afraid of democracy", they underline. “History will not ask us what partisan boundaries we were able to preserve. It will ask us what we did when the extreme right was at the gates of power, when the climate emergency required action and when the possibility of coming together was in our hands,” insist the signatories.

The primary of the socialist and democratic left organized by the Socialist Party and Place Publique is scheduled for October 9 and 10 for the first round, and October 16 and 17 for the second round.