Emboldened Socialists launch united attack on Sarkozy

After years of bitter squabbling and three successive defeats in presidential elections, French Socialists wrapped up their summer conference with a united front and a defiant challenge to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

By Carlotta Ranieri / William EDWARDS (video)
FRANCE 24 (text)

France’s Socialist Party (PS) presented a united front on Sunday as leader Martine Aubry wrapped up the party’s summer conference.

Aubry received a rapturous welcome from the party faithful , who chanted “Socialists, Socialists all together”, before launching a stinging attack on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s security policies.

Since losing the 2007 presidential campaign, the PS has been wracked by inner divisions and leadership struggles that have blighted its chances of mounting a clear and unified opposition to Sarkozy’s right-wing ruling UMP party.

But on Sunday at La Rochelle, Aubry addressed the party surrounded by PS heavyweights including Ségolène Royal (the 2007 presidential candidate) and François Hollande (former PS secretary general), both of whom are known to fancy their chances in the next presidential election.

Each was roundly applauded by the audience before Aubry took to the stage in a defiant show of opposition to Sarkozy’s administration.

“We will be ready for the 2012 presidential elections,” she told assembled party members, adding that her party would “demonstrate a credible alternative to right-wing politics.”

“All French people should know that we are on their side. We are ready to build a different France,” she said.

Roma expulsions ‘not dignified’

"(Sarkozy's) focus since this summer on law and order has given the socialists the ability to federate, to unite around a sort of anti-Sarkozyism".

By Melissa BELL

Aubry’s most stinging attack fell on Sarkozy’s security policy, focusing on the widely publicised dismantling of Roma camps in France and “repatriating” their residents to Romania.

“Mr President, these people are human beings and should be treated as such,” she said. “This kind of behaviour is not dignified for a president of the French Republic."

The Socialist leader accused Sarkozy of playing on "irrational fears" in his treatment of Roma and other travelling communities, and thereby "debasing the French Republic".

US-style primaries

The optimism of the party members reflects much of what the party has borrowed from US President Barak Obama’s own presidential campaign.

Among other innovations, the PS has announced it will hold US-style primaries early in 2011 to choose a presidential candidate for the 2012 election. The primaries would be open to anyone who is a registered voter, pays one euro towards the cost of the vote and signs a declaration of principles.

Members of French parties have traditionally chosen their own candidates, rather than give the choice to the entire electorate.

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Candidates for the job so far include International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whom a TNS-Sofres Logica poll last week predicted would easily defeat the president with 59% of the vote.

Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry finished in second with 53% of the vote, while former presidential candidate Segolene Royal came bottom with just 49%.

Strauss-Kahn has not officially declared his candidacy for the 2012 vote.

To date, only two of the Socialist Party’s less prominent figures, former party leader Francois Hollande and Évry mayor Manuel Valls, have announced their intention to run.