Presidential: suspected of fictitious employment, PCF candidate Fabien Roussel claims to have “proof of his work”

“What revelations? The communist presidential candidate Fabien Roussel, guest of’Europe 1 this Monday morning, defeated the accusations of fictitious employment which he has been the subject of since the publication, Sunday, of a Mediapart investigation. “My work with Jean-Jacques Candelier appears on my site, in complete transparency. There is no revelation. I am too respectful of the work of the press to question it. I worked during these five years with Jean-Jacques Candelier, with colleagues. They will be able to testify to the work we have done together, ”assured Fabien Roussel.

According to information from Mediapart, Fabien Roussel was between 2009 and 2014 the parliamentary attaché of Jean-Jacques Candelier, communist deputy for the 16th district of the North. He was then paid 3,000 euros net per month for this work, nearly a third of the envelope allocated to the deputy to remunerate his team, reports the newspaper. He is at the same time, from 2010, at the head of the northern federation of the PCF, “as an activist and volunteer”, he told Mediapart.

Neither Fabien Roussel nor Jean-Jacques Candelier could provide proof to Mediapart that the first had worked well for the second. Fabien Roussel “worked on important files of the National Assembly”, however affirmed the deputy, without being able to go into detail. However, according to the newspaper, a year after leaving the National Assembly in 2017, the deputy would have recognized during a conversation that the situation of Fabien Roussel “was not too clear”.

“I have never won 3,000 euros”

“I have never won 3000 euros. I have documents, to present my salary, ”insisted the candidate at the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk. Will he be able to present proof of his work? “My work is in all the speeches, the written questions, the laws written by Jean-Jacques Candelier. And I was with, and without him, pursuing conflicts in the Douaisis. I have the work documents”, he justified himself.

In a press release, Jean-Jacques Candelier said Monday “surprised and indignant at the article implying that Fabien Roussel did not work for (him)”. “He was a valuable and effective collaborator, in the field, constantly in contact with many union players, elected officials, inhabitants of Douaisis as well as the entire mining area and Nord-Pas de Calais”, affirms the former deputy. , which specifies that Fabien Roussel “had a very detailed knowledge of the economic and social situation, but also close links with many players in the territory”. “That’s why I hired him,” he says.

Asked about the presidential election, Fabien Roussel, who has already obtained his 500 sponsorships, does not wish to favor certain candidates for punishment, in particular on the far right. Éric Zemmour assured Sunday that it was “very possible” that he would not obtain the 500 sponsorships necessary to run for president, the RN also expressing “real uncertainty” for Marine Le Pen. “I will do everything so that, from my home, there is none in favor of the extreme right,” declared Fabien Roussel.