Olivier Faure, France's Socialist Leader (image@faureolivier)
Left-wing of France will choose candidate for the Prime Minister post within a week after their victorious electoral coalition, said Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party. He said the parties in the alliance would choose a candidate to replace Gabriel Attal, “either by consensus or a vote”.
Faure’s Socialist Party is one of the left-wing parties that constitute the Nouveau Front Populaire or New Popular Front (NFP), which won major seat share, though outright majority, in the French snap poll.
Born to a Vietnamese nurse of Chinese origin, and a French tax agent of Spanish origin, Faure spend his early childhood in La Reunion, an overseas territory of France. He grew up in Metropolitan France, from where he completed his studies. He has been with Socialist Party for nearly four decades.
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Faure entered politics at the young age of 16, when he joined the Socialist Party (PS). He became an activist for the National Union of Students of France (UNEF). He ran for the 2007 French Legislative elections from Seine-et-Marne’s 8th constituency, but lost.
In 2012, he was nominated as the candidate by the PS from Seine-et-Marne’s 11th constituency. The part was well-positioned to win the constituency due to an electoral pact with Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV), who withdrew their candidate Jean-Marc Brule from the race. He has been at the National Assembly till the date.
In 2016, Faure considered endorsing Emmanuel Macron for the 2017 Presidential Election, but later refused to do so after a meeting between the two.
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In 2021, Faure participated in a Paris rally of police officers, where he denounced how police were “constantly exposed to aggression” and demanded that they have a “right of inspection” on judicial decisions. After garnering wide criticism by several figures on the left, who accused it of violating the principle of separation powers. Faure went on to clarify his argument and walked back his use of the expression “right of inspection”, by calling it “unfortunate”.
In 2022, Faure supported and successfully passed a resolution condemning the Uyghur genocide in China.
