April 7, 2022, three days before the first round of the presidential election. The communist Fabien Roussel gives a last meeting in Lille. The atmosphere is festive, like the campaign of the one who presents himself as the candidate “happy days”. At home in the North, he calls for a vote of conviction in front of his supporters, he repeats to applause “Don’t let yourself be put to sleep. Free yourself, vote for your ideas. And when we want happy days, we vote for happy days. Quite simply. There are no other arguments.”
On the evening of the first round, Fabien Roussel collected 2.3% of the vote, just ahead of the mayor of Paris and socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo. However, it is positive. He made an impression with his program and above all his sense of the formula, “the France of happy days”, “barbecue”, “pay slips”. A few months later, he claims not to have experienced this score as a failure, “because we led this campaign with ‘Happy Days’, as a slogan that we declined so much we needed. But we always need happy days in our country”, says Fabien Roussel. “The France of barbecues”, earned him many reactions, rather positive on the right. Tells him to have some “taken the mouthful. I described French gastronomy as cheese, good wine, good meat. But hey, it was an image. Me, what I want is for everyone to have access. Those from the suburbs like those from rural areas, and that it goes through work and salary. It’s a social project. It’s revolutionary, that “, argues Fabien Roussel.
He is delighted that his candidacy has breathed new life into the Communist Party, “It made it possible to promote the ideas of the French Communist Party”, says Fabien Roussel.
“We have achieved a lot of memberships, young people who have joined our party. I receive a lot of messages of support, a lot of marks of sympathy. It gives us strength for the future.”
Fabien Rousselat franceinfo
For the rest, the deputy from the North, re-elected to the legislative elections, says he feels “rather reinforced” after this busy political year. And the left is too according to him: “Coming out of the presidential election, she is four and a half points higher than in 2017, she is slightly stronger and in her four points there are my modest two and a half points.”
Many left-wing voters point to his responsibility for the non-presence of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the second round, who missed several hundred thousand votes. He defends himself: “Rebellious voters, some of the most militant, launched a campaign on my head denouncing this fact. But when you look a little, it’s hard to blame the 802,000 voters who voted for me when there has 13 million abstainers. And so the question is why Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not manage to make 25, 26, 27%? Marine Le Pen arrived in the second round despite the candidacy of Zemmour. So the question is this: why is there always this glass ceiling with Jean-Luc Mélenchon which means that he cannot be in the second round? It’s too easy to blame it on me. Moreover, in 2012 and 2017, we supported him and he was not in the second round either. And I think that the voters who voted for me in the end would never have voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon ” , believes Fabien Roussel.
This union of the left, does he feel in his place and what is it? “I took part in it and I would even say that the French Communist Party is paying dearly for this agreement”, he underlines in reference to the 50 constituencies attributed to the Communists.
For Fabien Roussel, “It is important to continue to stand out in order to continue to exist, within the Nupes, embodied in the eyes of the public by the Insoumis above all, we are different, even sometimes very different, radically different with the ecologists, with the insoumis.” He therefore does not hesitate to affirm this singularity, even if it means sometimes giving the impression of playing it alone. “No one plays it solo, he defends himself.
“Everyone defends their opinions and convictions, and therefore everyone affirms, sometimes forcefully, opinions that can also offend.”
Fabien Rousselat franceinfo
That’s what I said of Jean-Luc Mélenchon when he said ‘the police kill’. But that’s what I also say when on the left, some people say we should definitely not have nuclear electricity in our country. This is a fundamental error for me. concludes Fabien Roussel.
After a holiday break at a campsite in Corsica, the start of the school year will be busy for Fabien Roussel. A major mobilization against the high cost of living is planned for September. Then he will make a tour of France to prepare for the next congress of the Communist Party. In short, the former candidate is returning to the campaign.