In the cold room, the knives bone the bloody barbaque. Fabien Roussel scrutinizes the precise gestures of apprentice butchers. He asks a few innocuous questions during his stroll. ” How old are you ? Is this the job you want to do? A young man replies: “I am a beef enthusiast, I would like to open my shop. The communist presidential candidate visited the Professional School of Butchery in Paris on Tuesday morning. A snub to the funny controversy over French gastronomy provoked, despite himself, a few days earlier.
“Good food is a way of life, it’s popular”
January 9, on France 3, the deputy from the North is asked about a prize awarded to Emmanuel Macron for “his constant commitment to wine”. Fabien Roussel assures then: “A good wine, a good meat, a good cheese, it is French gastronomy. The best way to defend it is to allow the French to have access to it. The expression turns sour on social networks. The native of Béthune is accused of all dishes: exclusion of vegetarians, underestimation of alcohol-related problems, excessive chauvinism, even appealing to the identity right… “Couscous, favorite dish of the French”, mocks
on Twitter Sandrine Rousseau, the president of the political council of Yannick Jadot’s campaign. Sign of a “straightening of the discourse”, adds the elected EELV Alice Coffin on
BFM TV.
“This controversy is hurtful when I am called a racist… but it is above all indicative of a level of debate at the level of daisies. It seems to us full of common sense to defend a healthy diet accessible to all, ”says Fabien Roussel on Tuesday. “But for us, defending food means defending something that is sacred in France. Good food is a way of life, it’s popular, ”adds the candidate.
“I am here to highlight your profession, and behind it there is a whole ball to shoot on French breeding”, he said to the butchers, referring to “local trade”, “respect for the living” and the purchasing power. “Food today is elitist. Some can afford free-range chicken, others eat discount battery-raised in Brazil. I want the worker to be able to buy quality meat too. »
“Part of the left has forgotten the people, lives in isolation, has become gentrified”
But the controversy above all reveals a campaign that clashes with the left. On meat as on the rest, Fabien Roussel says he wants to address the working classes. “My strategy is not to piss off the greens or how they eat (…) but we made the choice to distinguish ourselves. Part of the left has forgotten the people, lives in isolation, has become gentrified, intellectualized. We want to rediscover the taste of the people. The communist candidate has a traditional program of social justice, but he also invests in fields that he considers neglected by his camp: insecurity (he was present at the police demonstration last May), the fight against Islamism , the defense of nuclear power, the migration issue, secularism or hunting.
“He has good intuitions, he is one of the few on the left to understand the reasons for the popular divide and to refuse the Terra Nova strategy”, blows a close friend of Valérie Pécresse in reference to the “think tank” close to the PS. This niche often earns him more praise on the right than on the left. Even within the Communist Party, his style and his outings are irritating. PCF MP Elsa Faucillon denounced in early January on Twitter,
in a tribute to Charlie Hebdo, the “political turn made for months” by his party. On the side of the rebellious, we denounce a desperate strategy. “He is doing everything he can to stand out from us and try to exist in this campaign”, blows an elected LFI, while the communist candidacy is struggling to exceed 2% in the polls.
After two campaigns behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the cocos decided to go solo. A question of survival for the French Communist Party, roughed up in the last local elections ? Ian Brossat, Fabien Roussel’s campaign manager, sweeps away: “Our objective is not to have a candidacy to wave the red flag, but to address subjects that are not present enough in the debate and to reconnect the left to the real. »