“I no longer want a disappointing left. On his diary, Fabien Roussel crosses out the campaign days now behind him. “It’s my little pleasure,” he smiles. The PCF candidate received us Monday morning at the party headquarters in Paris. Purchasing power, pensions, nuclear, disunity of the left… A few days before the first round of the presidential election, the communist defends his program, singular on the left, and torpedoes the idea of a useful vote for Jean-Luc Mélenchon: “There are no useless voters! I say to the undecided “Vote for your ideas!” »
Why are you not in favor of the delivery of arms to Ukraine?
Everything must be done to support the Ukrainian people but also to avoid conflagration. Stronger economic pressures are needed. I regret that we have not done everything possible to influence Putin and to hunt down the Russian oligarchs. An example, golden visas: in the European Union, you can buy a European passport. In 2020, 1,000 Russian oligarchs came to settle in Cyprus to hide their assets in the tax havens of the European Union. We must attack this oligarchy, rather than risk a generalized conflagration of the conflict. I am not in favor of tomorrow, the French, the Europeans being called upon to enter into a third world war.
On the McKinsey case, do you believe, like other candidates, that justice should be seized?
It is already by the Senate [pour faux témoignage devant la commission d’enquête]. Justice must go all the way. I salute here the work of the communist senators at the origin of this commission. Moreover, how can we entrust in one year 1 billion euros of public money to consulting firms to find out how to reduce health expenditure, or to propose a merit salary for teachers? This is the logic of Emmanuel Macron, which goes hand in hand with the abolition of the ENA and the senior civil service. It chooses to transfer to the private sector competences which are normally those of the State. It’s serious because it had never taken on such a scale.
You accused the government of “complicity in tax optimization”. Why ?
Because this government says “if McKinsey didn’t pay taxes, it’s immoral, but it’s legal”. But it’s disgusting and shameful. And if the law allows it, then the law must be changed! I have been fighting for years precisely to ask that those who make profits in France pay taxes on them. If we do nothing, then we are complicit.
You propose to fight against tax optimization. But how do you force a multinational to pay taxes in France?
The profits made in France are first determined. Whether McKinsey, Peugeot, Amazon… They make profits but, through tax optimization systems, they pay less tax than an SME. It’s theft, racketeering! So let’s set up a withholding tax on the profits of multinationals. We can know their turnover in France thanks to the VAT they pay. So we can determine their profit and tax them at source.
On purchasing power, you propose increasing the minimum wage to 1,500 euros net. Isn’t this a problem for SMEs-VSEs?
Not if we help them. I want to support the managers of SMEs, traders, craftsmen because they are also under the weight of the banks which only lend to the rich. I prefer to stop public aid to Amazon to better direct it to the little ones. I will therefore lower their energy and insurance bills and I will offer subsidized loans at negative rates for SMEs: when they borrow 100, they will repay 80. Conversely, Macron, Pécresse or Le Pen propose lowering or abolition of production taxes, which are now paid by large groups such as Amazon or Google. It is still giving tax gifts. But why ? To pay for Jeff Bezos’ next space trip?
According to an OFCE study published in mid-March, under Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term, purchasing power has increased by 0.9% per year, or around 300 euros more each year…
The pensions or salaries that I am told about in the field say the opposite. The few crumbs received by some French people do not compensate for the increases in bills that we are experiencing and the increase in the cost of living. This is why it is important to increase wages, pensions and lower bills. Fighting the high cost of living is the top priority.
Given the aging of the French population, isn’t raising the retirement age necessary to maintain the level of pensions?
One should especially enjoy the progress and betterment of life. In the speeches, we are told about nursing homes. But finally, at 65, the future is not nursing homes! After a life at work, we want to enjoy… How do we deal with this extension of the lifespan? By having those who do not contribute today contribute: financial income, income from speculation, dividends. This represents 300 billion euros per year. With a tax of 11%, we recover more than 30 billion, it largely finances retirement at 60 with a minimum of 1,200 euros as I propose.
Emmanuel Macron has announced that he wants to go below 3% deficit in 2027 in the event of victory. Do you fear rigor?
Yes, and he is already promising tax measures for the first in line, the richest. And on the other side, he announces savings measures, with 20 billion from the state and municipal budgets, 20 billion! But where is he going to take them, from the pocket of the village mayor, from our hospitals, from our schools? These austerity cures have already done a lot of harm. We saw it during the pandemic. On the contrary, we must invest in public services by seeking the 100 billion euros a year that are missing because of tax evasion.
On the energy issue, you are the only one on the left to defend the energy mix including nuclear. Is this an anomaly?
I regret. But I fully assume the fact that we are going to have to deprive ourselves of fossil fuels, coal and oil. It is therefore necessary to invest in the production of carbon-free electricity. This involves renewables and nuclear. Both, Captain! It is essential, otherwise we will be dependent on Russian gas or American shale gas from hydraulic fracturing, which is prohibited in France.
Yannick Jadot said recently that the nuclear sector represented “17 billion mismanagement” and pointed to our dependence on foreign uranium…
He talks about Flamanville and, if there are delays and additional costs, it is precisely because we have abandoned this sector. Hollande, then Macron at the beginning of his mandate, gave up on nuclear power, forgetting to invest in research and training. You have to change gears. Furthermore, today we have several decades of uranium raw materials stored at La Hague. So we are not dependent, unlike gas. Thanks to nuclear power, we produce the least carbon-intensive electricity and one of the cheapest in Europe. The problem is to have submitted it to competition from the private sector, which is why we need a public energy service. That’s what I wear, unlike Yannick Jadot.
You mentioned “the France of barbecues”, which would have been abandoned by the left. What do you mean ?
That part of the left has turned its back on the working classes, the working class, rural life, our countryside, factories. I deeply regret it and I wish to bring this popular left which speaks as much to the inhabitants of the suburbs as to the inhabitants of the countryside, to vegetarians as well as to those who love meat. That we can eat less meat, but good, French meat. We need to invest in this French diet. It is this France that I want to embody, the right to good things and to pleasure for all. Stop punishing the French.
Is there a form of contempt on the left for the working classes?
Contempt or forgetting, as you wish. But I felt in this campaign their pleasure to finally find a speech that speaks to them. I wanted to talk about the right to happiness, while maintaining our climate goals. You have to stick to it, but without forcing. Me, I’m for reaching out, not for twisting the arm. It’s not just a nuance, it’s important.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is leading the race in the polls on the left. Are you not afraid of being the Taubira of 2022, the one who will be accused of having caused the left to lose?
But I make it win, I make the left progress! Everyone I’m going to convince by talking to them about electricity bills, nuclear power, the right to good food… I’m the only one talking about that. Yes, I defend those who live in rural areas, who have no choice but to use their car. I am the only one, too, left to have the license, to drive and to fill up… [Il réfléchit] Well I may not be the only one, but it’s my life! I’m a rural MP. I am the only one not to be Parisian in any case. I want to speak to those who no longer believe in politics. And what would I be responsible for? For two terms, the Communists did not present a presidential candidacy. What made it progress?
So there is no useful vote on the left?
There are no useless voters! It is the double penalty, the useful vote. First of all, we don’t vote for his ideas. Then, it has never made the far right back down. I tell voters, those who are undecided, those who abstain: “Vote for your ideas! » And I say to those who vote on the extreme right « Don’t be mistaken with anger! When the extreme right is super high in France, as it has been for fifteen years, what has it made progress for the workers, for the public services? Shit. On the other hand, when the Communist Party weighed 15%, that changed a lot of things. We had social conquests and the left won because we were unifiers.
So the division of the left is not a problem?
The left, each time it won, was able to do so because there was diversity. It’s because Marchais [candidat PCF] made 15% in 1981 that Mitterrand was able to win. The left has never won when united behind any pawn. What is important is the content. Because in 2012, François Hollande won. And what do we take away from it? A left that disappointed and turned its back on its hopes. Well, I no longer want a disappointing left. I want a left that makes you want, the desire to want. Here, I want to embody that until the end.
Do you fear a victory for Marine Le Pen in the second round?
I never imagine the worst because depression feeds depression and hope feeds hope. So I want to fight for this hope of change. Everything I represent in this campaign, everything I was the only one to wear on the left. I want to embody this left which pays homage to the victims of Charlie Hebdo, which defends the right to security, which defends the energy mix, healthy food and our farmers. Find another one on the left that ticks all those boxes! I am the only one…
Do you think that the revelations of Mediapart, which accuses you of fictitious employment when you were a parliamentary assistant between 2009 and 2014, were able to stop your momentum?
No. I don’t think so, I went door to door a lot, no one ever told me about it.