Fabien Roussel refuses to let Jean-Luc Mélenchon single-handedly impose the narrative of left-wing unity. At the Fête de l'Humanité, the communist candidate advocated a different strategy: rather than an electoral rally around a single man, he wants to build a popular mobilization in the streets and in workplaces.
While La France insoumise is multiplying its calls to rally behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Fabien Roussel has chosen to respond on a completely different ground.
"To all those who talk to me about unity, the only unity that counts is the unity of the people of France ," declared the national secretary of the Communist Party at the Fête de l'Humanité.
The formula sums up the approach he wants to take for 2027. Roussel now refuses to reduce the question of unity to that of a joint left-wing candidacy. He prefers to speak of a social movement focused on wages, purchasing power, industry, and public services.
Roundabouts before the apparatus agreements
The communist also called on his supporters to occupy roundabouts, prefectures, ministries or the headquarters of large companies to impose their demands.
The day before, he had already categorically ruled out withdrawing in favor of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. When asked about this possibility, he had replied: "Never."
The strategic divide is therefore becoming increasingly clear. Mélenchon wants to convince the left that the strategic vote should be concentrated around his candidacy; Roussel, on the contrary, wants to demonstrate that a communist candidacy can broaden the left-wing electorate beyond the core of La France Insoumise.
With seven months to go before the election, the two men are now vying for both the definition of unity and the leadership of the left.
