The congress determined the political line of the party and elected Olivier Faure as the next First Secretary after the resignation of Jean-Christophe Cambadélis on 18 June 2017.

Luc Carvounas, Olivier Faure, Stéphane Le Foll, and Emmanuel Maurel stood as candidates for the leadership of the party.

[2] The party congress comes a year after the end of the quinquennat of President François Hollande, who decided not to run for re-election amid tepid approval ratings.

[9] The PS was led by "collegial direction" beginning in July until Rachid Temal was appointed as "legal representative" and coordinator of the party on 30 September.

[15] In a statement published on 23 February, the party announced that a televised debate between the four candidates would be held on 7 March from 21:00 to 22:00 CET in cooperation with LCI, RTL, and Le Figaro.