Trait d'Union () was an organized

caucus A caucus is a group or meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to ...

in the French

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. Trait d'Union was founded in August 2005 by supporters of

Jean-Luc Mélenchon Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who has been the ''de facto'' leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) since it was established in 2016. He was the Deputy (France), deputy in the National Assembly ( ...

within the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

caucus. Soon afterward, the faction supported

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. Fabius was 37 years old when he was a ...

' motion at the

Le Mans Congress The Le Mans Congress was the twenty-first national congress of the French Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'' or PS). It took place from November 18 to 20, 2005. The objective of the Congress was to solve internal divisions created by the Fren ...

and at the

Reims Congress The Reims Congress was the twenty-second national congress of the French Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'' or PS), taking place from 14 to 16 November 2008 in the city of Reims in the Marne. Incumbent First Secretary François Hollande announ ...

in 2008, it supported

Benoît Hamon Benoît Hamon (; born 26 June 1967) is a French politician known for his former role within the Socialist Party (PS) and Party of European Socialists (PES) and his political party Génération.s. Hamon joined the Socialist Party in 1988 an ...

. The faction wanted to serve as a ''trait d'union'' (

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...

) between the PS and the "other left" (notably the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

. It clearly supported alliances with the left, but rejected any alliance with the centrist

MoDem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...

. The faction disappeared de facto after Mélenchon and Marc Dolez left the PS to form the Left Party.

External links

Official site
Factions of the Socialist Party (France) Political party factions in France Jean-Luc Mélenchon {{France-party-stub