Socialist group in the Senate

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The Socialist group in the Senate, now called the Socialist, Ecologist and Republican group (SER), is the Senate group for the Socialist Party (PS). It features members who sit with the PS and, in recent years, partners from ecologist and republican groups.

A short history:
- The first socialist group in the Senate appeared after the 1927 elections with 14 members. Before that, socialists sat with other left groups. Camille Reboul was the founding president, followed by André Morizet.
- In 1933, a split led by some “neo-socialists” reduced the group, but the SFIO kept the socialist group alive. The group’s size changed over the 1929, 1932, 1934, 1935, and 1938 renewals.
- During the Fourth Republic, a separate socialist group in the Council of the Republic held 64 seats in 1946 and 62 in 1948, then about 56–60 seats in the early 1950s.
- In the Fifth Republic, Antoine Courrière was the first president of the Senate socialist group, followed by Marcel Champeix (1974), André Méric (1980–1988), Claude Estier (1988), and Jean-Pierre Bel (2004–2011).

Recent changes:
- In 2011, the left won control of the Senate for the first time, and the Greens increased their seats. The group was reformed as the Socialist group, associated and attached to Europe Écologie Les Verts (Groupe socialiste, apparentés et groupe Europe Écologie Les Verts rattaché).
- In January 2012, after the Greens formed their own ecologist group, the socialist faction became simply the Socialist and associated group (Groupe socialiste et apparentés).
- When François Rebsamen joined the government in 2014, Didier Guillaume took over the group.
- In 2017, the Senate returned to the right’s control. On June 2, 2017, the group was renamed the Socialist and Republican group (Groupe socialiste et républicain) and, on June 27, 2017, 23 socialists left to join La République En Marche as it was founded.
- Patrick Kanner was elected president of the group on January 23, 2018 (47 votes for him, 25 for his opponent).

Today, the group is the Socialist, Ecologist and Republican group, reflecting its alliances and its continued role as the main voice of the Socialist Party in the Senate. Current representation is 65 of 348 seats, with an ideology rooted in social democracy. Website: the group’s activities are listed online.