In Montpellier, the communists want to reorganize their party – L’Humanité

Montpellier (Hérault), special journalist.

“After the time we’ve just experienced, it’s encouraging…” Before returning to Aude, the secretary of the Narbonne department, Patrick Castey, expresses a very shared feeling after the summer university of his party, the PCF.

Inspired by the political situation but inspired by these three studio days in the large auditorium of the Corum in Montpellier. A meeting that started strong, Friday at the end of the day, when Lucie Castets and Fabien Roussel came to the views of the communist activists.

The candidate for the New Popular Front in Matignonunknown to the general public just over a month ago, the communists were eagerly waiting after her meeting with Emmanuel Macron and the subject of her appointment to Matignon was involved in discussions between campaign on the sidelines of the workshops that followed each other until Sunday late in the morning.

“A time full of contradictions”

But that’s it “time” has been overtaken by the PCF, which Pádraig Castey is talking about, which the communists put in place and which should be there in the coming months.

In his speech on Saturday night, Fabien Roussel said: “This period is full of contradictions. They require analysis, both nationally and locally. »

The Communist Party continues to have a strong influence on French political life, as it showed again in the series that saw the creation of the New Popular Front and the negotiations to find a name to propose for Matignon. However, in the European elections, he did not manage to do better than in 2019 (2.5%). And in the legislative elections, he lost four representatives.

“big debate” to “reorganize our party”

Leon Deffontaines, topped the list at the last Europeansinvolved in the investigation of these failures in front of the activists. If he notices an increase of three points in the four left lists between 2019 and 2024, this, according to him, would be the result. “a left-wing vote by Macronist voters, and an increase in participation in areas gained from the left”.

But in both elections, “We have not been able to attract new voters from the working classes”insulting the leader of the communists, before he proposed “big debate” pouring “reorganize our party so that such failures do not happen again”.

The nature of the RN vote is under discussion

The historical stage of the far right was also central to the discussions. “I’m from the hospital environment, marks an activist, and I heard him say in the corridors that if the left came to power, we would be poor. »

Another man emphasizes it “direct link between quality of life at work, stress and RN vote”. Allier’s former communist leader, Yannick Monnet, has been narrowly re-elected against the RN, confirming what he noted about the nature of this vote: “We were involved in a very difficult campaign in a very broken area. (…) I have seen an increase in maintenance racism. We cannot continue to think that people who vote for RN are just unhappy »he explains to his colleagues Nathalie Oziol (FI) and Jean-Louis Roumégas (EELV), together with Emma Rafowicz (PS) and Igor Zamichiei (PCF).

The latter indicates a “the invisibility of workers and workers, the space taken by social networks, which locks people up”. “All this has led to the erosion of class criteria, to an identity structure that encourages the advancement of the extreme right”believes the leader of the communists.

With the RN front, we need to get the ground back

However, there is no question of including some kind of chase. The NFP has come to show that there is a way out. Jean-Louis Roumégas recalls this: “On the evening of the release, all the newspapers were thinking about the Bardella government. It was the left that stopped the extreme right from coming to power. “welcomes the deputy head of the environment.

The activists, for their part, focus on what they know best: the field. It is on this that they intend not only to regain control against the RN, but also to relaunch their party. “We need to help the social movement to build itself, and people to get involved in politics”said a young activist to Léon Deffontaines.

“The PCF is the party that can do this,” she adds. “But we have to guarantee resources, both on the ground and on the networks. » For the communists, this is a project that has only just begun. While you wait for political events at the beginning of the school yearthey already have a timetable to continue their reflection and reorganization work.

Fabien Roussel announced a national council for them on September 7, then a national conference “by the end of the year”. And in the meantime, we have made an appointment for Humanity Day, September 13, 14 and 15.