“Let the left be great again”: the Socialist Party had its souvenir cap made in China

For its summer universities organized in Blois (Loir-et-Cher), the Socialist Party has decided to allow its supporters to leave with a souvenir cap. The bright red object is inspired by those carried across the Atlantic by Donald Trump’s faithful. The slogan of the former president of the United States, “Make America great again”, has been hijacked in “Make the left great again”, or “Make the left great again”.

Some have little appreciated this inspiration, albeit misguided. On social media, we lambasted the reuse of the “graphic codes of a president advocating white supremacy.”

Manufactured more than 8000 km from Blois

But it is the origin of the hull that could pose the biggest problem. In fact, the socialist cap has a “Made in China” label on it, as BFMTV has seen. Therefore, it was manufactured more than 8,000 km from the city of Blois, where it is sold for 10 euros each. An initiative that is not in keeping with the ecological and sustainable values ​​that the PS, an ally of EELV within the framework of the Nupes, wants to defend today.

Faced with this observation, some activists present at the summer universities preferred to evade the question, recalling that most French clothing is made abroad. The Essonne Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj, informed by BFMTV of the “Made in China” label, however, wanted to distance himself from the object.

“It’s never good to move… It’s not ideal, I’m not going to tell you otherwise,” he said into our microphone.

The shadow of forced labor

Yannick Jadot, the unsuccessful green candidate in the April presidential elections, was also present in Blois this weekend, invited by his socialist allies. Informed of the existence of the Chinese cap, he harshly criticized the approach.

“When you go to environmentalists, we pay attention to where we produce our goods,” he said, before explaining: “We must be above reproach. If this cap was made in the Uyghur autonomous region, we are indeed participating in the forced labor and genocide that we are fighting with the socialists”.

A reference to possible labor camps run by Beijing in the Muslim-majority autonomous territory of Xinjiang, where many members of the Uyghur community would be interned. Several large groups, such as Inditex, have already been singled out in the past for potentially using forced Uyghur labour.

“They are idiots, anyway,” Yannick Jadot concluded.