The internal vote of the Socialist Party in Gard rekindles tensions. With 90 votes from Tresques, the candidacy of Alexandre Pissas divides. Will the national government validate this local choice?
This is a thorn in the side of the National Socialist Party. The vote of the Gard PS activists, who chose Alexandre Pissas to represent them in the senatorial elections (127 votes against 106 for Denis Bouad the outgoing senator and 48 for Joseph Pronesti) must be validated during a national council at the end of the month.
In Bagnols, 90 votes out of 92 for Pissas
However – and this is not new – the personality of the vice-president in the Department divides. Once again, and this more than ten years after the publication of a report on the supposed dysfunctions in the Bagnols-Campagne section in 2013, the vote of the voters on the stronghold side by Alexandre Pissas (Tresques, near Bagnols-sur-Cèze) is singled out. “Without Tresques’ votes, he would have finished last!” points out a party executive. Indeed, of the 127 obtained by Alexandre Pissas, 90 come from the Bagnols section. “There were 285 voters from Gard, including 92 voters in the Bagnols section which now brings together Bagnols town and Bagnols countryside, details another framework. Of these 92 voters, 90 voted for Alexandre Pissas. However, the Bagnols section has its headquarters in Tresques and includes very many activists from Tresques..
“Denis Bouad n’a plus la priorité”
Can this over-representation of PS activists in the Bagnols-Tresques sector be enough to overturn the vote of Gard activists as was the case in 2020? Not so sure. “Normally, according to our statutes, it is the outgoing senator who represents himself, we explain to the PS. But what is complicated in this case is that Denis Bouad first said that he was not a candidate. It launched alternative applications. As a result, Denis Bouad no longer has priority in this process. We will have to know if the national party respects the activist vote and validates the candidacy of Alexandre Pissas or if it invokes the over-representation of Tresques in the activist vote to justify the choice of Bouad.”
The national council of the PS, called to meet on June 30, will have to decide… and justify itself.
