Fabien Roussel will indeed be a candidate in the 2027 presidential election. The national secretary of the French Communist Party officially announced his candidacy this Sunday, live on TF1's 20 p.m. news program, in an interview with Anne-Claire Coudray. This will be the communist leader's second attempt, five years after obtaining 2,28% of the vote in the first round of the 2022 presidential election.
The announcement was expected. Re-elected this summer as head of the French Communist Party (PCF), Fabien Roussel had already moved considerably closer to another presidential candidacy in 2027. All that remained was to obtain the green light from the party members. That has now been done.
Communist activists nominated him with 72%
From September 3 to 6, 37,620 PCF members meeting the required conditions were called upon to vote on the candidacy of their national secretary. Fabien Roussel, the sole candidate for the nomination, received 72% of the votes cast.
A few hours later, he transformed this investiture into an official candidacy in front of TF1 viewers.
"I am a candidate in the presidential election. It is a well-considered choice," declared Fabien Roussel, who intends to present a "radical project" during this new campaign.
A poster and a slogan already prepared
Fabien Roussel didn't come empty-handed to TF1. The Communist candidate also unveiled his campaign poster, accompanied by the slogan: "Live! Better together, happy in peace ." A website dedicated to his candidacy was also launched.
The campaign starts immediately. Several media appearances are already scheduled, and the first trip is planned for Tuesday in the Paris region.
This candidacy confirms the PCF's desire to maintain an independent voice in the presidential race. For several years, Fabien Roussel has championed a platform strongly focused on work and purchasing power. He notably proposed replacing the RSA (basic income support) with a salary linked to employment or training.
Roussel joins Mélenchon in an already very crowded left wing
His official entry into the race adds another candidate to a particularly fragmented left. Jean-Luc Mélenchon has already officially announced his candidacy for the 2027 presidential election , while several other figures are involved in the presidential battle or in the primary process of a segment of the left.
The Communist candidacy remains all the more sensitive given that the 2022 election continues to strain relations between the French Communist Party (PCF) and La France Insoumise (LFI). Jean-Luc Mélenchon finished third with 21,95% of the vote, approximately 421,000 votes behind Marine Le Pen , while Fabien Roussel garnered 2,28%. Some members of La France Insoumise criticized the Communist candidate for preventing Jean-Luc Mélenchon from qualifying for the second round.
Fabien Roussel rejects this interpretation and has been defending for several months the idea that an absence of the PCF would encourage abstention more than an automatic transfer of its voters to another left-wing candidate.
The issue of fragmentation is already central. The various left-wing candidacies remain far from a dynamic that would allow one candidate to clearly establish themselves , while several competing strategies clash.
A second presidential election after the 2,28% in 2022
Fabien Roussel is already familiar with this exercise. The PCF candidate in 2022, he obtained 802,615 votes, or 2,28% of the votes cast . His campaign nevertheless allowed the Communist Party to present its own presidential candidate for the first time since 2007, after having supported Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2012 and 2017.
Since then, Fabien Roussel has experienced several political setbacks and comebacks. Defeated in the 2024 legislative elections in the North, he re-established himself locally and was re-elected mayor of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux in the first round of the 2026 municipal elections.
Now officially nominated by his party and having declared his candidacy before millions of television viewers, Fabien Roussel is launching his second presidential campaign. He faces a considerable challenge: to do much better than his 2,28% showing in 2022 while trying to carve out his place within a left-wing political landscape already crowded with candidates.
