Welcome with fanfare on the platforms of the Gare du Nord, in Paris. To fill the hall of his Lille meeting, Thursday April 7, three days before the first round of the 2022 presidential election, Fabien Roussel has reserved a TGV train. The passengers of the “happy people train”, have not even boarded yet that the effect is already working. Serge, who came from Chartres with his wife and daughter, is delighted. “It feels good, especially to enjoy life a bit, to have a good time.” What does he like about the Communist candidate’s campaign? “Renewal, someone who is my age and who really speaks to me about everyday issues”, he answers. And when it is pointed out to him that he looks a bit like Fabien Roussel, Serge smiles, amused: “That’s nice, I take that as a compliment.”
Once on board the train, other surprises await passengers. The loudspeakers broadcast a message in the train: “Yes, it’s Fabien Roussel, your captain and candidate for the presidential election”. The communist candidate has taken control of the train and this very young activist is very pleased: “Me as a 16-year-old, high school student, I find it absolutely incredible, especially the atmosphere… Taking a train in this atmosphere is still something new and different. And then the atmosphere within the Communist Party, frankly, it’s super cool.”
The bar car is closed but it’s live music for the activists in the happy people train. We want that in all TGVs @GroupeSNCF pic.twitter.com/0JMkzhmQBD
— Benjamin Mathieu (@BenjMathieu) April 7, 2022
A few hours later, it is an emotional candidate who goes on stage at the Zénith de Lille, discovering that all his children are seated in the front row: “What a surprise you all surprise me, what a surprise they surprise me with my children!” The deputy of the North, originally from Béthune (Pas-de-Calais), plays at home and does not sulk his pleasure. “As we say here, in a l’choir at work [on a le cœur à l’ouvrage]. It means that here, we know the value of work.”
In Lille, at the meeting of Fabien Roussel, after having made the 2,500 activists sing “when the sea rises”, they spontaneously resume “the settlements” pic.twitter.com/UhDQEg5CUm
— Benjamin Mathieu (@BenjMathieu) April 7, 2022
But after singing The Corons by Pierre Bachelet, a tribute to the workers of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin, Fabien Roussel refocuses on what drives the left since only Jean-Luc Mélenchon seems to be able to reach the second round: “Don’t let yourself be put to sleep, free yourself, vote for your ideas. And when we want happy days, we simply vote for happy days! There is no other argument.”
The meeting ends in a deluge of party favors. Hélène, a Parisian activist, also denounces this useful injunction to vote: “Since 2002, it hasn’t been effective in anything. Neither against the National Front, nor against the far right, nor against liberal policies. At some point, you have to stop and you have to change your strategy.”
“To block the far right, to block fascistic ideas necessarily, it’s part of our identity so yes, it challenges us, nuance Laura, a PCF activist from Val-de-Marne. But I am very proud of the choice made by the Communist Party to have a clearly identified candidate from the Communist Party. And I think it’s a success because at the level of the campaign that we led on the ground with the inhabitants, we are really much more audible.”
“Our program is much more readable. It was necessary and it does the activists good and I think it’s very positive for the future”
Laura, PCF activist from Val-de-Marneat franceinfo
After ten years in the shadow of La France insoumise, communist activists seem to be rediscovering the pride of running a candidacy on their own. Fabien Roussel wants to give the image of a candidacy synonymous with a spring, with freshness that feels good. It remains to be seen whether, on Sunday, the voters will not prefer to take the air rather than go to the polls.