There was an electric atmosphere about the Socialist Party’s annual summer conference on Sunday morning, at the end of a week that began with the socialist government reshuffle, dominated by the decidedly pro-market policy drive launched by Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the purging of leftists from his second cabinet.
The frustration and anger voiced by the Left of his party, from individual grass-roots members as well as the coordinated currents of opinion, was demonstrated at La Rochelle from the moment the prime minister stepped off his train on Friday to a booing and jeering reception party.
On Sunday morning it was the turn of socialist Senator David Assouline, in charge of organizing this year’s conference (what the party calls its 'summer university'), to be met by a storm of booing after he took to the stand and raised the red rag of Valls’ declared love of business – which the prime minister declared to a congress of the French employers’ federation Medef on Wednesday. But a rousing address immediately after by the president of the Young Socialists’ Movement, Laura Slimani, in which she said she had a “heavy heart” after the week’s events, that “no-one could rejoice” at the exit of the leftist ministers, and that there could not be a unique policy vision, met with thunderous applause. The meeting hall echoed to cries of “Vive la gauche! Vive la gauche!” right up to the first seconds of Manuel Valls much-awaited speech concluding the weekend gathering.
But Valls adopted a more tempered and less provocative tone than his various comments during the week. While the Young Socialists refrained from joining in the applause of Valls’ loyalists, the Left was given little provocation by Valls with which to begin hostilities. He received strong approbation when he made clear his support for keeping the 35-hour week. “There will be no placing in question of the length of [the working week],” he made clear, referring to comments suggesting the opposite made by his new economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, in an interview published during the week.
There was similar applause when he said it was necessary “to adapt the rhythm of the deficit reduction to the economic situation, to the level of growth”. He also enjoyed energetic clapping when he spoke at length on the plight of young people in France’s working-class urban enclaves, of the need to respect the Islamic faith, and the fight against discrimination, announcing a policy drive for greater social cohesion. In one ironic moment, he drew cheers when he called for an end to the “stigmatizing of populations” because of their origins – something he has often been accused of in his policies and comments on Roma migrants when he was interior minister.
Meanwhile, he made no mention of the issue of granting voting rights to non-EU foreign residents, nor the outlawing of racial profiling.
Defending the socialist government’s record in the creation of jobs among public service workers, he insisted that “we are not engaged in austerity”, and compared the government’s objective of slashing 50 billion euros from state spending should be set against “the madness” of “the 100 billions or 150 billions” of savings demanded by the conservative opposition.
There was noticeably less support when he called for the Socialist Party to rally around President François Hollande, battling record unpopularity in public opinion polls and accused by the opposition and many among his own ranks alike of indecision and policy U-turns, although Vall’s insistence on this gained a ripple of approval from the floor. The prime minister took few risks in his speech, avoiding any ardent ideological charge in support of the reshuffle coup he oversaw last week.
The only exception to this was one which split the party audience, when he raised the subject of the controversial so-called Responsibility Pact – in short, tax breaks offered to business in a non-contractual exchange for job creation, (of which his new economy minister, who replaced the leftist anti-austerity firebrand Arnaud Montebourg, was one of the architects when acting as an advisor to Hollande) – and the confidence given to business leaders. That drew derisive whistling from the Left, to which he responded by diverting from his prepared speech notes and, with the party leadership sitting en bloc behind him, demaded: “If you whistle at these words, what message are you sending the French people? So I ask you to stand up.” But the standing ovation he then received from the party’s centre was insufficient to drown out the opposition.
While not mentioning his name, Valls also succeeded in irritating the leftist militants when he referred to his new economy minister. “I have heard, over the last few days, numerous reactions, numerous comments, about a young minister who had just been appointed,” he said. “Comments [made] even before he has had time to prove himself. But I would have liked that, altogether, we rather congratulate [the fact that] the [French] republic has known how to recognise skills, work and engagement.” To this, the cat-calls from a section of the floor rose as he completed this passage of his speech which referred to newly-appointed education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. The trap was an example of Valls’ artful mastership of speech delivery, and which allowed him the playful comment: “That’ll teach some to let me finish.”
Along the way there were examples of linguistic gymnastics, such as the comment “We are the heirs of the future”, and of a certain surrealism, as in “I have the notion of camaraderie” - just six days after evicting Montebourg and education minister Benoît Hamon, two leftists who in April helped him, by their presence in his first government, succeed Jean-Marc Ayrault as prime minister.
Drawing his speech to a close, he made best of his new-found status of authority by presenting the line to a party he never previously managed to gain significant approval from. “There is neither a U-turn, nor a turning point,” he said. “There is a line: that of the truth, of reform and of effectiveness [of action].” He then paid tribute to “the Left, that which governs”, and for which “the best way of not renouncing on ideals is to not renounce what’s real,” meeting with modest applause.
Speaking to a handful of journalists shortly afterwards, the prime minister claimed his speech “closed a very coherent week” (the word “coherent” has been often repeated this week by his ministers and allies, not to mention President Hollande, as an upbeat description of the reshuffle). But he tempered: “A speech will not be sufficient. It does not erase the differences, but I’m continuing, I’m not giving up on anything. What is at stake is the future of the country, not that of the party.” He is no doubt conscious that it is not with the party’s help that he will succeed in imposing his vision for France.
“To gain applause for oneself over the common values of the Left is not very difficult, commented socialist Member of Parliament Christian Paul, on the Left of the party and a longstanding Montebourg ally. “We want that he doesn’t wall himself in with his certitudes. He wants us to respect each other, and I am completely in agreement. But respect also signifies listening to discontent.”
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse