PARIS—The Paris Olympics may be over, but there are still medals to be handed out. And according to Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF), President Emmanuel Macron has earned gold when it comes to stealing elections.
“In first place among the thieves is still Macron, Olympic champion of hacking the ballot boxes of the Republic,” Rousell told an audience tens of thousands strong at the PCF’s grand rally during the festival of l’Humanité, the party’s newspaper, held this past week.
The festival—officially called La Fête de l’Humanité—drew a crowd of 500,000 people for three days of music, culture, and politics to a former airbase in the southern suburbs of Paris.
Roussel had begun by thanking the athletes and public service workers who made the just-concluded Olympic Games a success. “We are proud of you, be proud of yourselves, too. You are essential to the happiness of France.”
By aligning with the fascists of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, however, Roussel said that Macron has made himself an essential ingredient in the country’s future unhappiness.
The people’s front
In the July parliamentary elections, the French people put the left-wing New Popular Front coalition (Nouveau Front Populaire, NFP) — of which the Communists are a part — in first place. This should have given the alliance the right to nominate a prime minister and form a government.
The president ignored the voters’ choice, though, and teamed up with Le Pen to install a right-wing premier instead – Michel Bernier, a conservative career politician and the choice of big finance. Essentially, Macron pulled off a coup from above, which Roussel has previously called “a big middle finger to the French people.”
Speaking from the Angela Davis Stage Saturday night, Roussel said, “Imagine you go into the voting booth, you vote for the New Popular Front, the union of the left, it comes out on top, and…you get Michel Barnier as prime minister, whose party came fourth!”
It wasn’t just those who cast ballots for the left who had their votes stolen, though, Roussel reminded the in-person crowd and the online and television audience watching his remarks from home.
“Or, how about this,” he said, “you vote for a candidate from the president’s camp” – from Macron’s party – “for the Republican Front, and you have a government that is in alliance with National Rally.”
The Communist leader was reminding those listening that Macron’s party presented itself during the election as the only political force capable of blocking Le Pen. The president appealed to voters to support his Renaissance coalition as the anti-fascist option, as the choice to “defend the Republic, to defend democracy.” Betraying the trust of those who supported him, he then promptly aligned with Le Pen after the votes were cast.
Macron’s actions prove he is a head of state who “only respects the sovereignty of the rich,” Roussel said. By contrast, the New Popular Front, which is a coalition of four left parties, he said, will continue fighting “to ensure the vote is respected.”
Labor’s choice
The New Popular Front had the backing of organized labor, progressive social movements, women’s groups, and climate justice activists in the elections. Its 150-point program included major taxes on the country’s biggest fortunes, huge investments in public services and housing, the repeal of Macron’s unpopular “pension reform” that raised the retirement age, price freezes to combat inflation, a rejection of EU austerity rules, an increase in the minimum wage, and more.
Festival attendees got a glimpse of the coalition’s united front character during a panel held before Roussel’s rally address when he appeared together with Lucie Castets, the NFP candidate for prime minister, and Sophie Binet, general secretary of France’s largest trade union federation, the Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labor, CGT).
Speaking on behalf of the country’s organized labor movement, Binet said the struggle against Macron and the capitalist class will not let up anytime soon. Democratic elections will be defended, she said, and all of the big business policies the president pushes will be resisted.
“October 1st must be the beginning of the return of the mobilization against the pension reform,” she declared at the joint session. Barnier, the prime minister of Macron and Le Pen, she warned, is already preparing a fresh offensive against workers. He will not only force workers to stay on the job later into life by raising the retirement age but also slash the social security budget if labor doesn’t stand up to stop him.
Neoliberal economics won’t deliver for the people, Binet said, referring to Barnier’s decades-long adherence to free market fundamentalism. “Supply-side policy has emptied the coffers.” Judging by the applause she received, those assembled agreed.
The labor leader had already wowed crowds on the opening day of La Fête de l’Humanité by scoring a knockout win in a debate against Patrick Martin, known as “the boss of the bosses.” He heads MEDEF Mouvement des entreprises de France / Movement of the Enterprises of France – the country’s largest employer federation.
To the shock of everyone, Martin had accepted an invitation to debate the leader of the organized working class at the festival. After cornering Martin into admitting collective bargaining works and that salaries need to go up, Binet delivered her final blow: “I’ve got a pen, I hope you have your checkbook.” The audience, already hostile to Martin, roared.
As for Castets, she urged widespread turnout for the unions’ Oct. 1 protests. She said the New Popular Front is more powerful precisely because it is aligned with labor and that an eventual NFP government will be “stronger with a mobilization of the unions.”
Roussel also spoke of the centrality of labor for the NFP and especially for the Communist Party. He emphasized his party’s defense of “the France of work,” meaning the dignity of all workers, whether union or non-union.
“Everyone should be able to be proud of their work, to be able to live from it, to flourish, to protect themselves, evolve, and share their passion with their children,” he said. “We will give work back its meaning and leave no one behind…. We cannot leave things in the hands of the financial markets.”
Ending the dictatorship of finance
Back at the PCF’s Saturday night rally, Communist leader Roussel’s speech reached its crescendo as he shouted to mass applause: “Let’s put an end to the dictatorship of finance! We will do it by putting the union of the left [the NFP] in power. All these colossal sums” – the huge profits of capital – “must be put at the service of the general interest!”
His call resonated with the crowd and seemed to inspire confidence for the fights ahead, despite the short-term loss brought by the Macron-Le Pen coup.
Two women of two different generations left the rally ready to get engaged, 28-year-old Marion and her 51-year-old mother, Fabienne. They traveled 400 km (250 miles) from their hometown of Dordogne to attend their first L’Humanité festival this year. The New Popular Front captured their imagination and prompted them both to become politically active for the first time in their lives earlier this summer.
“We have always been concerned by the fight for equality, and especially openness to others,” Marion, a social worker, said. “But after the shock of seeing the National Rally so high, we immediately said to ourselves that we had to do our part against the advance of this threat.”
Fabienne, who works as a medical secretary, added: “If, in 20 years, my grandchildren ask me what I did during this time, I don’t want to tell them that I stayed nice and warm at home. I want to be able to say that we got moving and joined groups, struggles, and important events like this one.”
Charlotte, a 28-year-old dual French-American citizen born in the U.S., was also among the crowd listening to Roussel. While she agreed with almost every detail of his speech, there was one point she felt compelled to challenge.
While Macron may be in first place for now when it comes to election theft, she warned there is another person in the race who could overtake him. “Macron is in the medal position,” Charlotte said, “but Donald Trump is on his heels and also competing for gold.”
Trump attempted to stage a coup on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the people’s verdict against him, and Charlotte believes the former White House occupant and MAGA Republicans are already scheming to do it again if necessary.
In France’s elections, she cast a ballot for the New Popular Front to block Le Pen. In the U.S. in November, she said she’s voting for Kamala Harris to block Trump. “Whether it’s in France or my home country, my vote is against fascism.”
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