Not a surprise but a small event nonetheless.
Fabien Roussel was invested Sunday as a presidential candidate in 2022 by a large majority (more than 73%) of the more than 800 members of the national conference of communists, gathered in videoconference this weekend.
This is the first time since 2007 that the PCF has presented a candidate, the two previous times, in 2012 and 2017, the choice having been to support Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the rebels.
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Fabien Roussel was elected national secretary of the party in 2018, with the promise that the PCF would have a candidate in 2022. It is therefore very well started, even if the 50,000 or so Communist members have yet to validate the candidacy of Mr. Roussel on May 9th.
But this next deadline should only be a formality.
Mélenchon "bruised" and "weakened" by this candidacy
And even if Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of LFI, is again a candidate in 2022, Mr. Roussel had indicated that he would go “to the end” of a candidacy.
Mr. Mélenchon had also said last March that he would feel "bruised" and "weakened" without the support of the PCF.
A few days earlier, LFI had decided to ally itself with the Greens for the regional ones in Hauts-de-France, rendering obsolete discussions between Communists and Socialists for a regional candidacy of Fabien Roussel, which would have functioned as a national showcase.
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Internally, Mr. Roussel also faces a mini-sling, since around 200 executives and activists oppose a PCF candidacy in 2022, which, they assure, cannot be taken for support for the rebellious candidate.
But Marie-George Buffet, ex-minister and ex-number one of the PCF, has already supported Mr. Mélenchon.
Without going that far, the deputy Sébastien Jumel estimated as a "man of the left", that it would be necessary "to choose the best of us to carry the battle against Macron".
