This will not facilitate the task of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in his presidential race in 2022. Communist leader Fabien Roussel, who has long left the doubt, takes a step forward towards his own candidacy.
"The PCF's vocation is to bring its project to life during the national elections", confides to us the n ° 1 of the Communist Party, presenting its formation as "the only one which allows to bring together the left and the world of work".
Even if the party will officially decide the question next year, at the latest in June at a Congress, the game seems to be settled.
There was no question for the Communists to repeat the painful experience of 2017, where their erasure did not lead to an agreement in the legislative elections.
The episode had been experienced by many of them as a fool's game.
Despite his 150,000 “citizen” supporters collected online in four days last week, Jean-Luc Mélenchon therefore risks facing competition from the left, he who arises as a unifier.
Worse, the leader of the rebels should also do without a large majority of the sponsorship of parliamentarians, mayors, departmental and regional councilors, while he begins to seek the signatures of 500 elected officials, necessary if he wants to compete .
"The elected Communists are free but in their overwhelming majority they will support our candidate," predicts Ian Brossat, spokesman for the PCF.
The party is preparing to invite them to line up behind the pretender house.
And according to our information, several Communist “godfathers” of Mélenchon in 2017 have already decided not to support him this time ...
Is it possible to do without communist sponsorship?
Nevertheless, the Mélenchonistes troupes display their serenity.
"I am convinced that we will be able to bring together sponsorships even without the support of the PCF, assures MEP Manuel Bompard, close to Mélenchon.
Contrary to what some claim, in 2017, we did not need to wait for Communist sponsorships to reach the 500 target. ”Especially since he still hopes that the two parties manage to come to an agreement.
"The PCF is free in its decisions but there is a common political space between them and us," he underlines.
I think we can manage to line up behind the same candidate.
Moreover, the subject is debated even within the Communist Party.
"
Last Sunday, the mayor (PCF) of La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis) Gilles Poux as well as the former national secretary of the PC Marie-George Buffet, announced in our newspaper that they were siding behind the leader Insoumis.
Even if he is more circumspect, the Communist deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis Stéphane Peu is more or less on the same line.
“The candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon does not seem incongruous to me, he admits.
I only hope that he does not exclude the gathering which, from the rebellious to environmentalists and socialists, is the essential condition for thwarting the Macron Le Pen face-to-face.
"
The task nevertheless promises to be more difficult for Mélenchon without the support of the Communist Party, which had supported him in 2012 as in 2017. "We are a young political movement which does not have decades of presence in the territories", recognizes Manuel Bompard.
Quite the opposite of the PCF, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
