That December vote on the EU Constitutional Treaty closed this parenthesis: by approving of it, the Socialists consciously accepted a reformist, social democratic, European identity. They have positioned themselves as a great power on the left, with a central position in the European Socialist Party, offering an alternative to the prescriptions of New Labour and the SPD.
12月份的欧盟宪法条约投票结束了这一插曲。它的通过表明了法国社会党有意识地接受了一种改革者的形象，一个社会民主的欧洲身份。他们将自己定位于一个强势左翼政党，在欧洲社会党中占据中心地位，给新工党和德国社会民主党提供了一条新的出路。