The Fête de l’Humanité begins on Friday for three days. An unmissable event for the French Communist Party and, beyond that, the entire left, while Michel Barnier’s government has not yet been named.
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This Fête de l’Humanité which begins Friday September 13th in Plessis-Pâté (Essonne) promises to be more political than ever, given the context. The left, the leading political force in the Assembly, but a future right-wing government, with LR Michel Barnier as Prime Minister: “For the people on the left, it is experienced as a huge betrayal,” confides the communist senator Ian Brossat. For him, the Fête de l’Huma will be “a great moment of expression of this anger and this desire to see the left govern next time.” And for the left to govern, it is not necessary “stand by with your arms crossed”, assures Léon Deffontaines, the spokesperson for the PCF. “We must prepare the response to what the right, allied with the extreme right, is preparing for us in terms of austerity measures and the reduction of public services.”
We must therefore counterattack, but also appear united during these three days of debates, meetings and concerts, while turbulence regularly shakes the New Popular Front, believes Cécile Cukierman, the head of the communist senators. “I believe that the Fête de l’Humanité is this first major event that effectively demonstrates a left that remains united, that remains diverse, but that remains united so that the people of the left can make themselves heard.”
Most of the headliners of the New Popular Front will be present at the Fête de l’Humanité, the environmentalist Marine Tondelier, the socialist Olivier Faure, the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, among others. An attempt to demonstrate a still precarious unity on the left, a few days before the probable announcement of Michel Barnier’s government.
And now the PCF will have to find a place within the NFP. How to exist between the PS and La France Insoumise? With only 17 deputies, the communists are the smallest force in the NFP behind the Ecologists. Small Thumb, but great singularity, would like to believe senator Ian Brossat. “Our specificity, I think, is to raise the issue of work, its remuneration, its meaning, working conditions. We will be what we know how to do, that is to say a party that defends the world of work, at the coalface, that is in contact with the trade union organizations.”
The PCF is trying to position itself as a party of dialogue. The only one in the New Popular Front for the moment, to agree to meet Michel Barnier at Matignon as part of the consultations he is conducting. Friday, the leader of the Greens Marine Tondelier explained on franceinfo that she had had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister, but she postponed a meeting until later, “between the formation of his government and his general policy speech.” The communist leaders, for their part, will be received on September 17, indicated Fabien Roussel. An assumed strategy, said Léon Deffontaines, the spokesperson. “We will explain to Mr Barnier what the French want because clearly, given the speeches he has made, he did not listen to them during the last legislative elections.”
The communists dream of being in firm but responsible opposition, in order to distinguish themselves from La France Insoumise, in particular. The radical nature of ideas can be expressed differently than through verbal conflict, assures a party representative.