Overview

• On August 9 MoDem posted a poster on X declaring “Leur populisme nous coûte cher” under images of Mélenchon, Le Pen, Bardella and PS chief Olivier Faure, prompting an immediate Socialist outcry.
• The centrist party deleted the visual within hours and an internal source called it “clearly a mistake,” a view later echoed by regional coordinator François-Xavier Penicaud in a public apology.
• Socialist figures including Michaël Delafosse and Luc Broussy labeled the campaign “scandalous” for equating socialism with the extreme right and challenged François Bayrou’s judgment.
• Boris Vallaud, head of the PS parliamentary group, said pulling the poster was “the least” MoDem could do and insisted that formal apologies are needed to repair coalition trust.
• The episode exposes growing friction between MoDem and its PS allies as parliament prepares for contentious budget negotiations this autumn.