The People’s Primary Achieves the Disunity It Was Meant to Avoid
The results of the People’s Primary were announced yesterday on a platform full of young activists, none of whom seemed to be more than 30 years old: “Never trust anyone over 30,” as we used to say, when we were in our 20s. Inevitably, however, the young grow old, enthusiasm wanes, and the reality of long, slow boring of hard, dry boards sets in. Perhaps the results of the primary will quench some of the youthful enthusiasm of its organizers.
Those results put Anne Hidalgo, the official candidate of the Socialist Party, in fifth place, behind Pierre Larrouturou, the New Deal candidate who staged a hunger strike to persuade his rivals to join the contest. This ultimate humiliation could well be the final nail in the coffin of the PS, although Hidalgo has now been assured of the support of Martine Aubry and most of the team around former candidate Arnaud Montebourg–cold comfort, no doubt, for her score of Assez Bien- (compared with the Assez Bien+ awarded to Taubira and Mélenchon)–as if politics were a continuation of report cards by other means.
In short, Taubira, the winner, has cemented her position as this year’s spoiler on the left, whose role will have been to ensure that the PS does not make the 5-percent cutoff for receiving the funds necessary to ensure the party’s future. To the young organizers of the People’s Primary, this old man awards a cynical Satisfecit.
1 Comment
The arrogant incompetence of the young organizers of this mascarade has put me in a cold fury, just like the Hamon faction did over 5 years ago. The only achievement of these people is destruction: they will never construct anything.
As for Taubira, she is the kind of friend no one needs and will achieve a ridiculous score in the presidential as she did in 2002 for I am not sure that her popularity extends much further than the bars of place de la Bastille. Ok, maybe the canal de l’Ourcq. Her only achievement will be as you mention in your last paragraph, to which I would add making sure the Paris municipality shifts from left to right in a few years after 20 years of progressive leadership. Thank you very much, I can think of another former Justice minister toasting this former Justice minister every day.
Hidalgo hesitated a lot before running. She had probably guessed most of the pitfalls and was not sure she had it in herself to run a national campaign. Still, her campaign or rather lack of campaign has been a severe disappointment.
Melenchon’s campaign is yet again not a disappointment and I suspect that the old militant should be watched very closely as he is reconstituting the old glorious 15-20% communist party of the 1970s. In a way, he is the Duclos of this new century.