Communist Fabien Roussel defended on Tuesday the legitimacy of his presidential candidacy in a context of dispersion of the left, assuring that the votes he will obtain in April 2022 “will be added to the total of the left”.
At the headquarters of the Place du Colonel-Fabien, in Paris, the national secretary of the PCF held a press conference to take stock of his summer caravans, during which he said he had met 5,000 people, and to present the book which will be released on September 2, My France (editions le Cherche midi).
“What are we each doing to bring the 20% down to 40%? “
“The problem of a left at 20% and five candidates, it is the 20%, not the five candidates”, pleaded Fabien Roussel. “The question is, what are we each doing to make the 20% drop to 40%?”
Thus, despite the need for a candidate to glean enough votes to qualify for the second round, “any votes we have will be added to the total from the left,” he said.
For example, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, potential candidate of the Socialist Party, “knows very well that we do not touch the same electorates, we are not competitors”. This is why “discussions have already started with left-wing forces for the legislative elections, which are not the presidential election”.
Differentiate from Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Fabien Roussel, however, admitted that he had to “explain the difference between his candidacy and that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, the rebel that the PCF supported in the last two presidential elections.
The Communist indicated that he had the same plan to “address the abstainers”, the share of the pie of the left electorate being “weak”, and wants to speak “to the disappointed of Mélenchon and his positions on security and laicity “.
On this last theme, Fabien Roussel advocated the “neutrality of public service agents, the need to protect our teachers and women, to fight against Islamist fascism and virginity certificates”, “unlike rebels”, according to him. .
Fabien Roussel confided that he did not approve of the term “creolization” of society carried by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
On the economy, the boss of the Communists declared that he wanted to hunt down tax exiles, without “chasing away the big fortunes: they are very intelligent, they have created, invented, and will not be able to refuse a pact for youth, of participation in improving the education system and increasing salaries ”.