Epinay Congress

The Epinay Congress was the third national congress of the French Socialist Party ("Parti socialiste" or PS), which took place on 11, 12 and 13 June 1971, in the town of Épinay-sur-Seine. During this congress, not only did the party admit the Convention of Republican Institutions ("Convention des institutions républicaines" or CIR, a federation of left-wing republican groups led by François Mitterrand) into its ranks, but the party leadership was also won by Mitterrand and his supporters.

Since 1969, Alain Savary was first secretary of the party, with the support of Guy Mollet, the former leader of the socialist party SFIO. Savary began an "ideological dialogue" with the French Communist Party. This dialogue was seen as a paving of the way towards an eventual electoral coalition with the Communists.

Savary faced two oppositing platforms. The right-wing led by Pierre Mauroy and Gaston Defferre were wary of this strategy and were traditionally more orientated towards a Third Force strategy involving a broad centrist alliance of parties to the right of the Communist Party and to the left of the Gaullists. The left-wing CERES faction led by Jean-Pierre Chevènement wanted to accelerate the process of an alliance with the Communist Party.

Mitterrand and the CIR, which joined the PS in Epinay, advocated immediate negotiations with the Communist Party in order to write a common election programme.

The will to overthrow Mollet's group from the leadership of the party permitted the birth of a broad coalition between the Mitterrand, Defferre, Mauroy and Chevènement factions. It obtained 51.3% of the vote against 48.7% for Savary and Mollet. This Congress was described as a premeditated plot, prepared by Mitterrand, Mauroy, Defferre and Chevènement beforehand.

Mitterrand became the new PS first secretary and in the following year signed the "Common Programme" with the Communist Party and the Movement of the Radical-Socialist Left.

Mitterrand clinched the party leadership with a very radical speech, a strategy often used in French socialist congresses:

"Reform or revolution? I feel like saying, yes, revolution [...] Violent or peaceful, a revolution is first of all a break [...] Whoever does not want the break with the established order [...] with capitalist society, cannot be a member of the Socialist Party".

His project to ally with the Communist Party in order to replace it as main left-wing party became obvious when he said, during the congress:

"I think it is not normal: that 5 million Frenchwomen and Frenchmen choose the Communist Party".

References

* Franz-Olivier Giesbert, "Mitterrand", Seuil, 1996
* www.centenaire.parti-socialiste.fr