"We are not afraid of another dissolution": the French Communist Party prepares to censor Sébastien Lecornu

Four red lines, zero illusions. At a meeting at the Fête de l'Humanité on September 13, Fabien Roussel set his conditions to the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu: "Abandon the Bayrou budget, repeal of the pension reform, taxation of the richest and increase in salaries." Otherwise, it will be censorship, warns the national secretary of the PCF in front of the crowd of activists, which overflows the national stand of the party.

Sébastien Lecornu, who will be meeting him and the leaders of the Communist parliamentary groups "at the beginning of the week," will of course turn a deaf ear. " We never practice the empty chair policy, but these negotiations with the left are a decoy," considers Stéphane Peu, president of the GDR group in the Assembly. More than in the meetings under the gilded Matignon, the PCF believes in social and union mobilization to keep the executive under pressure.

In the aisles of the Fête, communist activists are rejoicing in the "spark" of September 10. Bayrou has fallen, Lecornu has already renounced the abolition of public holidays . A beginning, one would like to believe. "It was a young, creative, festive movement, with many students but also young professionals," greets the PCF spokesperson Léon Deffontaines, while Fabien Roussel denounces the "police provocations" and the intimidating speeches of Bruno Retailleau . The national secretary of the PCF invites this momentum to continue and intensify on September 18 at the call of the inter-union, social mobilization being the only condition to "make the executive bend and strengthen the left."

A left that also expects to return to the polls sooner than expected, beyond the 2026 municipal elections. "We are not afraid of another dissolution!" assures Fabien Roussel, who is already projecting a rapid fall of Sébastien Lecornu. With a different scope, however: the national secretary of the PCF rules out a renewal of the 2024 New Popular Front agreement, during which the communists were only able to run in 50 constituencies. The PCF is calling for a "new agreement" with negotiations "by department."

However, there is no question of sweeping aside the unity demand made many times by the public at the Fête: "We will be there for the largest, most effective and closest gatherings on the ground," says Fabien Roussel, while tensions remain high with LFI (although the latter is now reserving its blows for the PS). "I am against exclusivity on the left, we communists must be a unifying factor ," warns Stéphane Peu. The tone is set: a return to school in struggle rather than a return to clashes.