“My priority is the social question, the question of production and the question of work”, presents Léon Deffontaines

“We can act on a European scale for purchasing power,” defends the head of the communist list.

“My priority is the social question, the question of production and the question of work”, defends Thursday April 25 on franceinfo the communist candidate for the European elections Léon Deffontaines. Its objective is to “exceed the 5% threshold“, below which parties cannot have elected representatives in Parliament.

“I think we can find a left-wing electorate that no longer feels represented by left-wing political leaders” and in particular those who do not make the social question a priority. He tackles in passing the PS candidate Raphaël Glucksmann and the LFI candidate Manon Aubry: “Today on the left, the European campaign boils down, for some, to an issue around Ukraine, for others around Palestine.”

“Ceiling salary” as minimum wage

“I think of those who will be shopping and who will have difficulty filling their shopping cart, it is them that I want to address in this European campaign“, affirms the communist candidate, “I want to tell them that we can act on a European scale for their purchasing power.” Léon Deffontaines wishes, for example, to establish a “ceiling salary” in companies at European level, comparing the measure to the establishment of a European minimum wage. He cites in particular the recent example of the boss of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, who had a salary of 36.5 million euros per year validated by shareholders. “In what Europe can we live, where someone earns a salary of 36.5 million euros, when their salary is 500 times higher on average than the salary of employees in their group?”he protests.

Thanks to his proposal, already defended during the presidential election by Fabien Roussel, Léon Deffontaines therefore wants to limit, at the European level “the wage gap from 1 to 20” so that “when a boss wants to increase his salary, he will be obliged to mechanically increase the salaries of his employees”. He does not say he is worried about a flight of business leaders outside Europe: “I say chick ! Are you ready to do without the French, European market? ?”

Return to 100% French production

Another subject dear to the eyes of the communist candidate: ecology. “On the other hand, I don’t wear it in the same way as my colleagues on the left”, he explains. First example, the vote on Wednesday by the European Parliament on a revision of the CAP, seen by part of the left as a step backwards in environmental terms. But for Léon Deffontaines, “it’s rational and pragmatic ecology”. “I have always said it, on agriculture, no ban without a solution, because the CAP must be based on two fundamental principles: the environmental imperative and food sovereignty”.

For him, we must go further to defend the objective of food sovereignty and call into question “all free trade agreements which result in unfair competition for our farmers”. He quips: “Don’t worry, Canadians will have a much harder time doing without our French wines and cheese than we will without their beef raised on antibiotics.” For him, the agricultural question is “intimately linked” to his hobby horse, “the question of purchasing power”. “I hope that every French person can buy the magnificent work of our French producers, with good vegetables, good meat, good French wine, provided, of course, that salaries and retirement pensions are increased, and that they are indexed to inflation, so that everyone can buy French”he pleads.

This return to 100% French production must also be done in other areas, because “if we want to respond to the environmental imperative and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, we will have to produce much more on national and European territory, massively reindustrialize to bring production closer to consumption, which will create services local public”, he analyzes. The communist list therefore defends “major works useful for the environment, such as investment in rail freight, replacing trucks with trains in particular, supporting infrastructure such as the Lyon-Turin line and opening everyday rail lines.”

Another notable difference with the other left-wing lists, PS, LFI or ecologists, is the position of Léon Deffontaines on energy policy. “For all of this, we will need energy, and it must be carbon-free, that’s why we support nuclear and renewables.” Ihe therefore maintains to be “at the head of the most ecological list because we have a plan to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050”.