Republican and Socialist Left Gauche républicaine et socialiste | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | GRS |
| National co-facilitators | Emmanuel Maurel Bastien Faudot |
| National co-coordinators | Marie-Noëlle Lienemann Jean-Luc Laurent |
| Assembly leader | Stéphane Peu |
| Founded | 19 October 2018; 7 years ago (2018-10-19) |
| Split from | Socialist Party |
| Headquarters | 3, Avenue de Corbera 75012Paris |
| Ideology | Socialism Eco-socialism |
| Political position | Centre-left[1] toleft-wing |
| National affiliation | Federation of the Republican Left (2022–present) New Popular Front (2024–present) |
| European Parliament group | The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL |
| Colors | Red,cyan andviolet |
| National Assembly | 1 / 577 |
| Senate | 0 / 348 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 81 |
TheRepublican and Socialist Left (French:Gauche républicaine et socialiste,GRS) is asocialist political party inFrance. It was founded on 3 February 2019 after the merger of the Alternative for a Republican, Ecologist and Socialist Program (APRÉS) and theCitizen and Republican Movement (MRC) ofJean-Luc Laurent andJean-Pierre Chevènement. APRÉS had been founded in October 2018 byEmmanuel Maurel andMarie-Noëlle Lienemann after their departure from theSocialist Party and was close toLa France Insoumise.
The Alternative for a Republican, Ecologist and Socialist Movement (APRÉS) had 650 to 1 000 members.[2][3] These included politicianGaëtan Gorce,Christophe Premat and political researcher Rémi Lefebvre, who signed a call that initiated the merger of the party with the MRC into a new political organization, whose founding congress took place on 2 and 3 February 2019.
After splitting from the Socialist Party (PS), APRÉS formed a "newPopular Front" with La France Insoumise (LFI) to present a joint electoral list for the2019 European Parliament elections.[4] Emmanuel Maurel described the elections as the "first step" in the alliance between the two parties.[5]
Three weeks after the merger, the leaders of the new party announced that one thousand former members of the PS had joined them.
The MRC, led by Jean-Luc Laurent and founded by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, supported the APRÉS call for a merger.[2] It also participated in the alliance with La France Insoumise in the 2019 European Parliament elections. During a party congress from 1 to 2 December 2018, 73.5% of members voted to create a "new political formation" with APRÉS in 2019 that would be the "home of the republican left."[6]
The two parties merged on 3 February 2019 at a Founding Conference inValence to establish the Republican and Socialist Left (GRS), with Maurel and former MRC spokesman Bastien Faudot as the first co-presidents.[7] The party's name was chosen by its supporters from a list of proposals including the New Republican and Socialist Party, Our Common Causes and Ecologist and Socialist Republicans.[8]
During the 2019 European Parliament elections in France, the GRS joinedNow the People, an electoral list led byManon Aubry of La France Insoumise. The GRS's candidates on the list included Maurel, Catherine Coutard, Anthony Gratacos andNouvelle-Aquitaine regional councillor Elisabeth Jutel. Maurel, who was in sixth place on the list, was re-elected in the elections.[9][10][11][12]
The GRS opened its first "university" for political education in September 2019 inRochefort,Charente-Maritime.[13]
On 21 and 22 November 2020, the GRS joined the Radicals of the Left (LRDG), Republic and Socialism, Common Causes and theParty of the European Left in organizing the Universities of the Republican Left (UGR) by teleconference. The opening of the Universities was attended by several prominent left-wing figures, such asArnaud Montebourg,Yannick Jadot,Fabien Roussel andFrançois Ruffin.[14]
In January 2021, the GRS began to develop its party platform for the2022 French presidential election. The first draft of the platform was open to amendments by party members from June to September 2021. It was then debated by the UGR at an in-person event in the Docks des Suds inMarseille on from 24 to 26 December 2021; the event was organized by the same political groups as in 2020.[15] Political figures in attendance included LFI Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and co-president ofThe Left in the European Parliament Manon Aubry, essayist Jacques Rigaudiat, former secretary-general of theSyndicat de la Magistrature unionHélène Franco, former Greek foreign ministerGeorgios Katrougalos,Europe Ecology – The Greens MEPMarie Toussaint, secretary-general of the LFI delegation to the European ParliamentMarina Mesure andGénération.s candidate inProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Capucine Edou.[16] The morning of 26 December was dedicated to voting on amendments and the platform as a whole in a debate presided over by LRDG secretary-general Isabelle Amaglio and GRS secretary-general Anthony Gratacos. The platform was finalized by the end of the UGR, and the GRS began preparing its electoral campaign for the spring 2022 election campaign.[17]
With the 2022 presidential election approaching, the GRS organized a vote among its members to select a candidate. Four candidates were on the ballot: Yannick Jadot, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Arnaud Montebourg and Fabien Roussel. Of the 4 217 party members, 2 445 voted in an 20 and 21 October 2021 online election where Montebourg won with 56.97% of the vote.[18] Accordingly, the GRS began to campaign for Montebourg on 22 October, until he withdrew from the presidential race on 19 January 2022.[19] The party subsequently announced its support for Roussel and hisFrench Communist Party (PCF) instead.[20]
The GRS has been criticized by figures in the Socialist Party, which it split from. The first secretary of the PS,Olivier Faure, described the defection of APRÉS' founders as "individual choices" and rejected Emmanuel Maurel's political stances, saying that "We have never taken that lane, the populist lane. If we had followed it, we would have never abolished thedeath penalty."[21][22]
Laurent Baumel, a former Member of the National Assembly, Socialistfrondeur dissident and member of Maurel's Union and Hope movement, refused to have "the entire left wing [rally to] Jean-Luc Mélenchon" and stayed in the PS.[21]
In the2019 European Parliament elections, the GRS formed an alliance withLa France Insoumise. National co-facilitator Emmanuel Maurel was elected as part of the six winning candidates from the alliance's list.
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | WithLFI | 1 / 79 | New | The Left | ||
| 2024[a] | Léon Deffontaines | 584,020 | 2.36 (#8) | 0 / 81 |  1 | − |
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