“The PS is reformist and revolutionary depending on the moment” | EUROtoday
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It’swas the magic phrase anticipated by the socialists. On Tuesday, in his common coverage declaration, Sébastien Lecornu introduced that he would suggest to Parliament to “suspend” the pension reform till the presidential election. Two days later, believing that they’d obtained a “victory for [des] a whole lot of 1000’s of French folks”, the PS decided to give the Prime Minister a respite and not to vote for censure.
What does this resolution symbolize for the rose occasion? A return to the center of the parliamentary recreation and an try to reconnect with its authorities occasion garments? A lure that dangers isolating him from the remainder of the left? The historian Alain Bergounioux, former director of research for the primary secretary of the PS and ex-advisor to Michel Rocard, deciphers for The Point the technique adopted by the previous home. He is the co-author with Gérard Grunberg of Ambition and Remorse: French socialists and energy (1905-2005).*
The Point: By deciding to not censor the Lecornu authoritiesis the Socialist Party reconnecting with its reformist DNA?
Alain Bergounioux: The attribute of the PS is that it’s reformist and revolutionary relying on the second. This ambivalence is defined particularly by the fixed presence of an “other left” (revolutionary syndicalism earlier than 1914, communism after 1920, LFI right now), in addition to by the singularity and division of French syndicalism… The ambiguity started with Jaurès, who tried to synthesize between “reform” and “revolution”. François Mitterrand, who was not a fan of “speaking the truth”, wished to make political selections with out opening a debate which might name into query this double identification. But the left has all the time needed to take this duality under consideration. We needed to wait till 2014 to listen to François Hollande, President of the Republic, declare himself a “social democrat”.
The PS has not resolved all of the questions posed to it, notably on sovereign points.Alain Bergounioux
That mentioned, each time socialists have been in energy, they’ve pursued reformist insurance policies. Over time, reformism prevailed, each in authorities and in native communities. I’m subsequently not stunned that the PS determined on this course.
Does such a type of alliance between the socialists and the middle have precedents?
Of course. Under the IVe A Republic, which is just a little forgotten right now, and whose historical past we’d profit from re-studying, the socialists are led – regardless of themselves, as a result of they haven’t misplaced their “revolutionary aspirations” – to make compromises and enter into governments. The Third Force [coalition regroupant, de 1947 à 1952, démocrates-chrétiens du MRP, SFIO, radicaux et indépendants, NDLR] was fashioned to forestall the accession to energy of two “extremes”, the communists and the Gaullists. Let us do not forget that, within the authorities of Pierre Pflimlin, the final of the IVe Republic [du 14 au 28 mai 1958, NDLR]it’s a socialist, Jules Moch, who occupies the Ministry of the Interior.
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In 1958, the SFIO was represented within the Debré authorities: Guy Mollet, its secretary common, was minister of state. She broke away at the start of the next 12 months resulting from disagreements over social coverage after which entered the opposition. But the political system will evolve drastically following the adoption of the election of the President of the Republic by common suffrage, beneath the impact of the institution of an more and more clear duality between the precise and the left which dominates for 3 many years and makes the union of the left the primary query.
The “tripartition” which is taking maintain, with the rising affirmation of the National Front, which has grow to be the National Rally, is regularly altering the scenario, resulting in a decomposition of the previous political system which even tends to grow to be a “pentapartition”. Which leads us to rediscover forgotten points, these of parliamentarism, contradictory with the logic of the Ve Republic.
LFI accuses the PS of treachery. Is any such criticism new?
This is the vocabulary utilized by the Communist Party of the Nineteen Twenties concerning “social traitors”. It is a part of the custom of the acute left. The PC of the time and La France insoumise will not be lefts of the identical nature, however this lexicon is an identical. We return to the battles between Jules Guesde and Jean Jaurès, notably, through the first participation of a socialist, Alexandre Millerand, in 1899, within the “bourgeois” authorities of Waldeck-Rousseau, which the primary condemned and the second defended.
By deciding to not censor the Lecornu authorities, did the socialists make the precise selection, in your opinion?
The socialists carried out nicely for 2 causes. First, the PS has positioned itself in a central place within the political debate, which was not the case two years in the past. Then, on the inside degree, Olivier Faure, who had been narrowly elected first secretary, kind of unified his occasion and disadvantaged his opponents of their principal criticism… Tactically, it was nicely achieved.
Now the trail is troublesome and the pitfalls are quite a few. This resolution is bound to pose issues sooner or later and spark debate inside the left. The socialists are confronted with an electoral actuality which forces them to have in mind their environmentalist and communist allies to confront LFI. The parliamentary debate which is opening guarantees to be complicated, and nobody is aware of precisely the way it will finish. Perhaps by a disaster and censorship in a single, two or three months, particularly since Sébastien Lecornu is cornered by his proper and even by his heart, with the criticism coming from Renaissance and its allies.
Could socialists, who maintain the future of the federal government of their palms, be seized by the temptation of hubris?
No, as a result of they’re confronted with electoral actuality. The outcomes of the final by-election weren’t sensible [dans la cinquième circonscription des Français de l’étranger, le candidat socialiste n’a pas réussi à accéder au second tour, NDLR]. The positioning of the PS doesn’t resolve these elementary difficulties. That mentioned, there’s a center-left citizens which confirmed itself by way of its vote for the listing led by Raphaël Glucksmann over the past European elections: 14%, that is not ridiculous. The PS can subsequently discover some room for maneuver, however who can say how this political disaster will resolve, and the place we will likely be in a number of months…
In substance, do the calls for of the socialists, such because the repeal of the pension reform or the Zucman tax, slot in within the continuity of their historical past ?
Yes, there’s nice continuity with the socialist custom. The centrality of the place they offer to the query of pensions just isn’t new. More typically, their calls for – pensions, tax coverage, social advantages, public companies – are a part of the traditional panoply of socialism. For the PS, it’s probably within the authorities that it might grow to be extra sophisticated…
On the connection with Europe or sovereign points, the socialists should nonetheless make clear their positions…
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Answer
On European points, and international coverage on the whole, issues appear fairly clear to me, and that is additionally a serious level of division with LFI. The PS has not resolved all of the questions posed to it, notably on sovereign points, the place its message is troublesome to outline. But it has no less than discovered its DNA of calls for and social reform.
*Alain Bergounioux, Gérard Grunberg, Ambition and Remorse: French socialists and energy (1905-2005)Fayard, 2005.
https://www.lepoint.fr/debats/alain-bergounioux-le-ps-est-reformiste-et-revolutionnaire-en-fonction-des-moments-18-10-2025-2601222_2.php