Trait d'Union ( en, "Hyphen") was an organized

caucus A caucus is a 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 a meeting ...

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 t ...

. 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 was a member of the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône from 2017 to 2022. He led the ''La France Insoumise'' group in the Natio ...

within the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

caucus. Soon afterward, the faction supported

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician serving as President of the Constitutional Council since 8 March 2016. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 M ...

' 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 Frenc ...

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 announc ...

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 and ...

. 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. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes ( figur ...

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

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

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

MoDem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more c ...

. The faction disappeared

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

after Mélenchon and

Marc Dolez Marc Dolez (born , in Douai, Nord) is French politician. He represented the Nord's 17th constituency from 1988 to 1993, and again from 1997 to 2017. A former member of the Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different poli ...

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