“Me the pretzel, it got crooked!” Laughter in the packed amphitheater of the University of Strasbourg (Alsace), where the Communist Party’s back-to-school campus is held. In his speech on Saturday evening, Fabien Roussel fired one by one his arrows tinged with humor against Emmanuel Macron and his “above ground” ministers. “Do they go shopping sometimes, the Le Maire, Macron, Borne and Darmanin?” Asks the national secretary of the PCF, sleeves rolled up.
For his political comeback, the Northerner has therefore chosen to reconnect with his classics by relying once again on “the social question”. “Over two years, the cumulative increases in food prices reached 21.4%. Flammkueche and pancakes are becoming a luxury product when they are popular dishes!” he continued, to the applause of activists. The boss of the communists, who will participate on Wednesday August 30 in the “major political initiative” wanted by the head of state, also did not fail to rebuke the outstretched hand of Emmanuel Macron. “I almost choked when I read the ten pages of the president’s interview, which does not say a word about what millions of French people are going through, workers, working classes like the middle classes, small bosses , pensions”, he criticized.
Also a way to cut the grass under the feet of Gérald Darmanin, who will work on Sunday on “the expectations of the working classes” during his big back-to-school rally in Tourcoing (North). “If I could, believe me that I would have gone there to tell him what I think of the policy he has supported for 7 years!” he assured. Because the communist sees with a funny eye the charm number of the Minister of the Interior, who sharpens his ambitions for the next presidential election. “You supported retirement at 64, the non-revaluation of wages, the increase in the CSG…. You have supported and defended this disastrous policy for the French, the French must remember it”, he launched from the classroom in the direction of the one he has long rubbed shoulders with on his land.
Far from the bickering of the weekend on the left, Fabien Roussel has also taken care not to directly scratch any of his Nupes partners. “When the left is more concerned with what it is doing than with the solutions to be built, the French turn away from it,” he simply warned. Not a word either on the coup de brilliance of Ségolène Royal among the Insoumis, who could well take the lead of a “unitary” list from the left to the Europeans. “I hope that the Insoumis will give him the best reception,” he quipped, a few minutes before his speech.
Without targeting the Greens, the Northerner took the opportunity to publicly provide his “support” for the essayist Rachel Khan, targeted by anti-Semitic remarks by the rapper Médine – himself a guest of the summer universities of EELV and the Insoumis . “The PCF will never sink into ambiguity,” he thundered, while reluctant to point the finger at his allies. “There will never be the slightest complacency in our country for racist or anti-Semitic remarks, wherever they come from, whoever their authors! They are unacceptable, unjustifiable, inexcusable.” Spared by the summer controversies, the Communists could well be overtaken by the arrival of Medina, on September 15, at the Huma Festival. A few voices within the party would also have been raised to disconnect the concert from the artist, without any official discussion having yet been initiated.