Unsurprisingly, Fabien Roussel was re-elected with 70.1% of the votes at the head of the French Communist Party (PCF) on Sunday morning July 5, while the party has been meeting in congress since Friday in Lille (North). He should confirm during the day his intention to be a candidate in the presidential election, to the great dismay of certain elected officials from his party and from La France insoumise (LFI), which still criticizes him for having prevented Jean-Luc Mélenchon from reaching the second round in 2022.
The next step will take place on September 6, when activists will vote to nominate the communist candidate for the Élysée. “I said that I was ready, if you decided, to lead this fight with you once again,” launched the national secretary on Friday from the podium.
“The choice of ideological battle rather than erasure”
The activists “expressed a choice, that of combat rather than withdrawal, that of ideological battle rather than erasure,” he added, reinforced in his national ambitions after his re-election in March as mayor of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (North).
At the beginning of June, activists voted for the direction’s text, facing three alternatives. This document provides in particular that “the communists consider that they have every legitimacy to put forward a rallying candidacy from their ranks, for the presidential election”. But, out of nearly 40,000 up-to-date members, 24,600 took part in the vote. And if Fabien Roussel’s text won, it was only with 61.4% of the votes (around 14,800 votes).
By comparison, during the last PCF congress, in 2023, its orientation was adopted by 81.9% of the votes (23,900 votes). Enough to make the coordinator of La France insoumise Manuel Bompard say this week that “the very solitary position of Fabien Roussel has rather declined”. And Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s right-hand man denounced the “stubbornness of the die-hard candidacy” of the national secretary. “We take note of this rupture,” added Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Saturday on X.
2.28% of the votes in 2022
In 2022, the former journalist had only collected 2.28% of the votes (around 802,000 votes), confirming the slow national decline of the PCF. A score, however, sufficient to attract accusations from LFI, which accuses him of having deprived Jean-Luc Mélenchon of a second round (420,000 votes separated him from Marine Le Pen). All the more painful for the Insoumis as the PCF had supported their leader in the 2012 and 2017 elections.
But there is no question for Fabien Roussel, supporter of communist affirmation, of lining up behind the one from whom he continues to stand out and who has stolen the leadership of the radical left from his party. “We do not practice the empty chair,” he warned recently in L’Humanité.
“If the extreme right is increasing, it is still not the fault of the PCF, which has always fought it. On the contrary, the absence of the PCF in the presidential election would reinforce abstention,” added the former deputy, who lost his seat in the National Assembly after the 2024 dissolution.
The cantor of “France of happy days”
This champion of “the France of happy days” puts forward, in addition to a radical program, a slightly nostalgic imagery, that of “good wine, good meat and good cheese”. This gives him a popularity rating which could help him, he hopes, to win back a part of the working class which has abandoned the left. But this is not enough to reassure, even within his own party.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for the Communist Party to present a candidate,” insists Stéphane Peu, president of the Democratic and Republican Left group in the Assembly, more favorable to an agreement with LFI to guarantee constituencies for the Communists in the next legislative elections. Some internal opponents tried to impose a “review clause” in the fall, ultimately rejected on Saturday by activists. “For my part, I don’t see myself being a presidential candidate and questioning my candidacy during the campaign,” the national secretary said in L’Humanité.
