French Communist Party
Encyclopedia
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.
Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement
(UMP), and considerable influence in French politics: two presidencies of "conseil général", 186 seats in regional parliament, about 800 mayors. It is one of the most influential parties behind the Socialist Party
and the UMP. The PCF remains the largest party in France advocating communist views.
Founded in 1920, it participated in three governments: in the provisional government of the Liberation (1944–1947), at the beginning of François Mitterrand
's presidency (1981–1984) and in Plural Left's cabinet led by Lionel Jospin
(1997–2002). It was also the largest French left-wing
party in a number of national elections, from 1945 to the 1970s, before falling behind the Socialist Party (PS) in the 1980s. The PCF has lost further ground to the Socialists since that time.
Since its participation in François Mitterrand
's government, the PCF has sometimes been considered by the far-left to be a social-democratic
party. It supports alter-globalization
movements although it may sometimes also criticise them, in particular their lack of organisation.
After a poor performance in the 2007 French legislative election
, the party did not have, for the first time since 1962, the minimum level of 20 deputies needed to form a parliamentary group by itself. The PCF then allied itself with The Greens
and other left-wing MPs to form a parliamentary group to the left of the Socialist Party, called Democratic and Republican Left.
The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left
, and its MEP
s sit in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left
group.
Tensions within the Socialist Party had emerged in 1914 with the start of the First World War, which saw the majority of the SFIO take what left-wing socialists called a "social-chauvinist" line in support of the French war effort.
At the Tours congress
of the SFIO in 1920, the left-wing faction (Boris Souvarine
, Fernand Loriot) and the center faction (Ludovic Frossard, Marcel Cachin
) had agreed to join the Third International, and consequently to fulfill the 21 conditions imposed by Vladimir Lenin
. They obtained 3/4 of the votes of the representatives and split away to form the Section Française de l'Internationale Communiste (SFIC). Nevertheless, the majority of the elects and MPs was reluctant towards the principle of the "democratic centralism
", written in Lenin's conditions, and remained in the SFIO.
The founders of the SFIC took with themselves the party paper L'Humanité
, founded by Jean Jaurès
in 1904, which remained tied to the party until the 1990s. The newly created party, later renamed Parti Communiste Français (PCF), was three times larger than the SFIO ( members). Ho Chi Minh
, who would create the Viet Minh
in 1941 and then declare the independence of Vietnam
, was one of the founding members.
At first the PCF rivalled the SFIO for leadership of the French socialist movement, but many members were expelled from the party (including Boris Souvarine
), and within a few years, its support declined; for most of the 1920s it was a small and isolated party. Its first elected deputies were opposed to the Cartel des Gauches
coalition formed by the SFIO and the Radical-Socialist Party
. The first Cartel governed from 1924 to 1926.
The Communist Party attracted various intellectuals and artists in the 1920s
, including André Breton
, the leader of the Surrealist
movement, Henri Lefebvre
(who would be expelled in 1958), Paul Éluard
, Louis Aragon
, etc.
The PCF was the main organizer of a counter-exhibition to the 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris, called "The Truth about the Colonies". In the first section, it recalled Albert Londres
and André Gide
's critics of forced labour in the colonies and others crimes of the New Imperialism
period; in the second section, it opposed "imperialist
colonialism
" to "the Soviets' policy on nationalities".
The second Cartel des gauches was elected in 1932. This time, although the PCF did not take part in the coalition, it did support the government without participating in it (soutien sans participation), in the same way that before World War I (1914–18) the Socialists had supported the Republicans
and the Radicals' governments without participating. This second Cartel fell following the far-right 6 February 1934 riots, which forced president of the Council Édouard Daladier
to pass on the power to conservative Gaston Doumergue
. Following this crisis, the PCF, as the whole of the socialist movement, feared that a fascist conspiracy had almost succeeded. Furthermore, Adolf Hitler
's access to power in 1933 and the destruction of the Communist Party of Germany
following the 27 February 1933 Reichstag fire
and Stalin's new "popular front" policy led the PCF to get closer to the SFIO. Thus, the Popular Front
was prepared, and got elected in 1936.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929
and the following Great Depression, which affected France in 1931, caused much anxiety and disturbance, as in other countries. As economic liberalism
failed, new solutions were being looked for. The technocracy
ideas were born during this time (Groupe X-Crise
), as well as autarky
and corporativism in the fascism movement, which advocated union of workers' and employers. Some socialist members became attracted to these new ideas, among whom Jacques Doriot
. A member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern from 1922 on, and from 1923 on Secretary of the French Federation of Young Communists, later elected to the French Chamber of Deputies, he came to advocate an alliance between the Communists and Social Democrats. Doriot was then expelled in 1934, and with his followers. Afterwards he moved sharply to the right and formed the French Popular Party, which would be one of the most collaborationist
parties during Vichy France
.
In 1934 the Tunisia
n Federation of PCF became the Tunisian Communist Party
.
strategy, which allowed an alliance
with the SFIO and the Radical Party to fight against fascism. The Popular Front won the 1936 elections, and Léon Blum
formed a Socialist-Radical government. The PCF supported this government but did not join it. The Popular Front government soon collapsed under the strain of domestic (financial problems, including inflation) and foreign policy issues (the radicals were against an intervention in the Spanish Civil War
while the socialists and communists were in favour), and was replaced by Édouard Daladier
's government.
On 12 August 1936, a party organization was formed in Madagascar
, the Communist Party (French Section of the Communist International) of the Region of Madagascar.
and the outbreak of conflict in the European Theatre of World War II in 1939, the PCF was declared a proscribed organisation by Édouard Daladier
's government. At first the PCF reaffirmed its commitment to national defense, but after Comintern addressed French Communists by declaring the war to be 'imperialist', the party changed its stance. PCF members of Parliament signed a letter calling for peace and a favorable view of Hitler's forthcoming peace proposals. Party leader Maurice Thorez
deserted the army and fled to Moscow in order to escape prosecution.
During the occupation the relationship between the Communists and the occupation was strained. One of the major actions organized by the Communists against the occupation forces was a demonstration of thousands of students and workers, which was staged in Paris on 11 November 1940. In May 1941, the PCF helped to organize more than 100,000 miners in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments in a strike. On 26 April 1941, the PCF called for a National Front for the independence of France with the Gaullists.
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the PCF expanded Resistance
efforts within France notably advocating the use of direct action and political assassinations which had not been systematically organized up until this point. By 1944 the PCF had reached the height of its influence, controlling large areas of the country through the Resistance units under its command. Some in the PCF wanted to launch a revolution as the Germans withdrew from the country, but the leadership, acting on Stalin's instructions, opposed this and adopted a policy of co-operating with the Allied powers and advocating a new Popular Front government. Many well-known figures joined the party during the war, including Pablo Picasso
, who joined the PCF in 1944.
, in terms of both organisation and prestige. With the liberation of France in 1944, the PCF, along with other resistance groups, entered the government of Charles de Gaulle
. As in post-war Italy, the communists were at that time very popular and a strong political force. The PCF was nicknamed the "party of the 75,000 executed people" (le parti des 75 000 fusillés) because of its important role during the Resistance,
By the close of 1945 party membership stood at half a million, an enormous increase from its pre-Popular Front figure of less than thirty thousand. In the elections of 21 October 1945 for the then-unicameral interim Constitutional National Assembly, the PCF had 159 deputies elected out of 586 seats. Two subsequent elections in 1946, first still for the Constitutional National Assembly, then for the National Assembly of the new Fourth Republic
– now the lower house of a bicameral system – gave very similar results. In the election of November 1946, the PCF received the most votes of any party, finishing narrowly ahead of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and the Christian democratic
Popular Republican Movement
(MRP). The party's strong electoral showing and surge in membership led some observers, including American under-secretary of state Dean Acheson
, to believe that a Communist takeover of France was imminent. However, as in Italy, the PCF was forced to quit Paul Ramadier
's government in May 1947 in order to secure Marshall Plan
aid from the United States.
The Italian Communist Party
(PCI) was never to return to power, despite a historic compromise
attempt in the 1970s, and the PCF was also isolated until François Mitterrand
's electoral victory in 1981. A strong political force, the PCF nevertheless remained isolated due to persistent anti-communism
. It thus began to pursue a more militant policy, alienating it from the SFIO and allowing the right-wing parties to stay in power.
The PCF, no longer restrained by the responsibilities of office, was free after 1947 to channel the widespread discontent among the working class with the poor economic performance of the new Fourth Republic. Furthermore, the Party was under orders from Moscow to take a more radical course, reminiscent of the Third Period
policy once pursued by the Comintern
. In September 1947 several European Communist parties came to a meeting at Szklarska Poręba in Poland, where a new international agency, the Cominform
, was set up. During this meeting Andrei Zhdanov
, standing in for Joseph Stalin
, denounced the 'moderation' of the French Communists, even though this policy had been previously approved by Moscow.
Out of government, and newly instructed, the PCF denounced the administration as the tool of American capitalism. Following the arrest of some steel workers in Marseille in November, the Confédération Générale du Travail
(CGT), the Communist dominated Trade Union confederation, called a strike, as PCF activists attacked the town hall and other 'bourgeoise' targets in the city. When the protests spread to Paris, and as many as 3 million workers came out on strike, Ramadier resigned, fearing that he faced a general insurrection. This is probably the closest France came to a Communist take-over.
This development was prevented by the determination of Robert Schuman
, the new Prime Minister, and Jules Moch
, his Minister of the Interior. It was also prevented by a growing sense of disquiet among sections of the labour movement with Communist tactics, which included the derailment in early December of the Paris-Tourcoing Express, which left twenty-one people dead. Sensing a change of mood, the CGT leadership backed down and called off the strikes. From this point forward the PCF moved into permanent opposition and political isolation, a large but impotent presence on the political map of France.
During the 1950s, the PCF critically supported French imperialism during the Indochina War
(1947–54) and the Algerian War
(1954–62), although many French communists also worked against colonialism
. Thus Jean-Paul Sartre
, a "comrade" of the Communist party, actively supported the National Liberation Front
(FLN) (the porteurs de valises networks
, in which Henri Curiel
took part). Long debates took place on the role of conscription
. While this stance by the PCF may have helped it retain widespread popularity in metropolitan France, it lost it credibility on the radical left. During his scholarship to study radio engineering in Paris (from 1949 to 1953), Pol Pot
, like many other colonial elites educated in France (Ho Chi Minh
in 1920), joined the French Communist Party.
The second half of the 1950s was also marked by some dissatisfaction with the pro-Moscow line continuously pursued by party leaders. However, no definitive eurocommunist
aspirations developed at the time. A major split occurred as Maoists
left during the late 1950s. Some moderate communist intellectuals, such as historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
, disillusioned with the policies of the Soviet Union, left the party after the violent suppression of Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
In 1959 the PCF federation in Réunion
was separated from the party, and became the Reunionese Communist Party.
's return to power and the French Fifth Republic
. Little by little, it was joined in opposition by the center and center-left parties. It advocated left-wing union against De Gaulle. Waldeck Rochet
became PCF leader after Thorez's death in 1964.
In the mid 1960s the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 260 000 (0.9% of the working age population of France).
For the 1965 presidential election
, thinking a Communist candidate could not obtain a good result, it supported the candidacy of François Mitterrand
. Then, it made an electoral agreement with the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
coming up to 1967 legislative election
.
In May 1968 widespread student riots and strikes broke out in France. The PCF initially supported the general strike but opposed the revolutionary student movement, which was dominated by Trotskyists
, Maoists
and anarchists, and the so-called "new social movements" (including environmentalist
s, gay movements, prisoners' movement – see Michel Foucault
, etc.) At the end of May 1968, the PCF sided with de Gaulle, who was threatening the use of the army, and called for the end of the strike. The PCF also alienated many on the left by failing to condemn clearly the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968
, even though it expressed its surprise and disapproval.
Nevertheless, the PCF benefited from the left-wing mood of the period, and from the collapse of the socialists. Because of Waldeck Rochet's ill health, Jacques Duclos
was the candidate at the 1969 presidential election
. Duclos polled 21% of the vote, completely eclipsing the SFIO whom, represented by Gaston Defferre
, came in third in the first round. For the second round, the PCF refused to distinguish between Gaullist
Georges Pompidou
and Centrist Alain Poher
, considering that was "six of one and half a dozen of the other" (in French: blanc bonnet ou bonnet blanc).
In 1970, Roger Garaudy
, a member of the Central Committee of the PCF from 1945 on, was expelled from the party for his revisionist tendencies, being criticised for his attempt to reconcile Marxism with Roman Catholicism. Starting in 1982, Garaudy emerged as a major Holocaust denier
and was effectively condemned in 1998.
In 1972 Waldeck Rochet was succeeded by Georges Marchais
, who had effectively controlled the party since 1970. Marchais began a moderate liberalisation of the party's policies and internal life, although dissident members, particularly intellectuals, continued to be expelled. The PCF entered an alliance with Mitterrand's new Socialist Party (PS). They signed a Common Programme in view to the 1973 legislative election
. The difference between the two parties decreased: the PCF had taken 21.5% of the vote as against 19% for the PS.
Nominally the French communists supported Mitterrand's candidacy in 1974 presidential election
, but the Soviet ambassador to Paris and the director of L'Humanité
did not hide their satisfaction with Mitterrand's defeat. According to Jean Lacouture
, Raymond Aron
and François Mitterrand
himself, the Soviet government and the French communist leaders had done everything in order to prevent Mitterrand from being elected: they regarded him as too anti-communist
and too skillful in his strategy of rebalancing the Left on account of PCF.
During Mitterrand's term as PS first secretary, the socialists re-emerged as the principal party of the left. Indeed, Marchais asked to update the Common Programme, but the negotiations failed. The PS accused Marchais of being responsible for the division of the left and of its defeat at the 1978 legislative election
. For the first time since 1936, the PCF lost its place as "first left-wing party", which the Socialists assumed.
At the 22nd party congress in February 1976, reeling from fallout caused by the publication of The Gulag Archipelago
, the PCF abandoned the dictatorship of the proletariat
and references to it; it began to follow a line closer to that of the Italian Communist Party
's eurocommunism
. However, this was only a relative change of direction, as the PCF globally remained loyal to Moscow, and in 1979, Georges Marchais
supported the invasion of Afghanistan
. Its assessment of the Soviet and East-European Communist governments was "positive overall".
Marchais was a candidate in the 1981 presidential election
. During the campaign, he criticized the "turn to the right" of the PS. But some Communist voters, wanting the left-wing union in order to win after 23 years in opposition, chose Mitterrand. The PS leader obtained 25% against 15% for Marchais. For the second round, the PCF called on its supporters to vote for Mitterrand, who was elected President of France.
When PCF ministers resigned in 1984 to protest Mitterrand's change of economic policies, the party's electoral decline accelerated. André Lajoinie
obtained only 6.7% in the 1988 presidential election
. From 1988 to 1993, the PCF supported the Socialist governments at various times, depending on the issues.
The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a crisis in the PCF, but it did not follow the example of some other European communist parties by dissolving itself or changing its name. In 1994 Marchais retired and was succeeded by Robert Hue
. Under Hue the party embarked on a process called la mutation. La mutation, which included the thorough reorganization of party structure and move away from Leninist dogmas, was intended to revitalize the stagnant left and attract non-affiliated leftists to join the party. However, it failed to stop the decline of the party. Under Lionel Jospin
(the socialist who was prime minister under president Jacques Chirac
from 1997 to 2002), the PCF again held ministerial offices from 1997 to 2002 (Jean-Claude Gayssot
as Minister of Transportation
, etc.). The party became riddled with internal conflict, as many sectors opposed la mutation and the policy of co-governing with the Socialists.
In the first round of the 2002 presidential elections
, Hue received just 3.4% of the vote. For the first time, the PCF candidate obtained fewer votes than the Trotskyist candidates (Arlette Laguiller
and Olivier Besancenot
). In the 2002 legislative elections
, the PCF came in fourth, polling 4.8% of the vote (the same as the center-right Union for French Democracy
, UDF) and won 21 seats. Chirac's UMP came in first, followed by the Socialist Party, the National Front, UDF, PCF, the Greens, and then the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League
(LCR) and Lutte Ouvrière. Eventually Robert Hue had to resign, and in 2002 Marie-George Buffet
took over the leadership of the party. Under Buffet the party embarked on a process of reconstruction, reversing some of the moves made during la mutation.
In 2005, during the referendum campaign on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
(TCE), the PCF supported the 'No' side alongside other left-wing groups, much of the Socialist Party, the Greens, and right wing eurosceptics
. The victory of the 'No' vote, along with a campaign against the Bolkestein directive, earned the party some positive publicity.
In 2005, a labour conflict at the SNCM
in Marseille
, followed by a 4 October 2005 demonstration against the New Employment Contract (CNE) marked the opposition to Dominique de Villepin
's right-wing government, who shared his authority with Nicolas Sarkozy
as Ministry of Interior, leader of the UMP right-wing party and already then a probable 2007 presidential candidate. Marie-George Buffet
also heavily criticized the government's response to the riots in autumn
, speaking of a deliberate "strategy of tension
" employed by Sarkozy who called youth from the housing projects "scum" (racaille) which needed to be cleaned up with a "Kärcher
" high pressure hose. While most of the Socialist deputies voted for the declaration of a state of emergency
during the riots, which lasted until January 2006, the PCF, along with the Greens, opposed it.
In 2006, the PCF and other left-wing groups supported protests against the First Employment Contract, which finally forced president Chirac to scrap plans for the bill, aimed at creating a more flexible labour law
.
During the run-up to the first round of the 2007 presidential election
, Buffet hoped that her candidacy would be supported by the left-wing groups who had participated in the "No" campaign in the referendum on the EU constitution. This support was not forthcoming and she scored only 1.94%, even less than Robert Hue's 3.4% in the previous presidential election. The PCF's score was low even in its traditional strongholds such as the "red belt" around Paris. The disastrously low vote means that the PCF has not met the 5% threshold for reimbursement of its campaign expenses, and could portend a similarly low vote in the next general election. However, the party had prepared for this eventuality, and thus kept its expenses low for the presidential campaign. However, its very low score at the subsequent legislative elections did weigh a lot on its budget. One possible reason for this particularly low vote is that some PCF supporters may have voted tactically for Ségolène Royal so as to be sure that a candidate from the left would be present in the second round runoff. Another factor seems to have been competition from the young and charismatic candidate, Olivier Besancenot
, of the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League
).
In the legislative election of 2007
, the PCF gained 15 seats, five below the minimum required to form a parliamentary group by itself. This was the first time the PCF had ever fallen below that threshold in the history of the Fifth Republic
. The PCF subsequently allied itself with The Greens
and other left-wing MP's to be able to form a parliamentary group to the left of the Socialist Party
, called Democratic and Republican Left. Although the PCF and the Greens agree on a number of issues, especially on economic and social policies (consensus on the necessity to support lower classes, right of foreigners to vote
at municipal elections, regularisation of aliens, etc.), but also on others themes (by contrast with the Socialist Party, both refused to vote for the state of emergency
during the 2005 civil unrest, they also distinguished themselves on a number of other issues, including the use of nuclear energy
.
In the municipal elections of 2008
, the PCF fared better than expected. It won Dieppe
, Saint Claude
, Firminy
and Vierzon
as well as other smaller towns and kept most of its large towns, such as Arles
, Bagneux
, Bobigny
, Champigny-sur-Marne
, Echirolles
, Fontenay-sous-Bois
, Gardanne
, Gennevilliers
, Givors
, Malakoff
, Martigues
, Nanterre
, Stains
, Venissieux
. However, the PCF lost some key communes
on the second round, such as Montreuil
, Aubervilliers
and particularly Calais
, where an UMP candidate ousted the PCF after 37 years.
In the 2009 European Parliament election
, the party ran as part of the Left Front
with the Convention for a Progressive Alternative
and the Left Party
. The Left Front won five seats and increase of two.
The PCF has chosen Jean-Luc Mélenchon
to represent him at the French presidential election 2012.
The PCF has two Presidents of the General Council
– the Val-de-Marne
and Allier
. It lost Seine-Saint-Denis
in 2008 to the PS. In addition, it has numerous general councillors in most French departments and it is a member of the ruling departmental majority in a number of them. In addition, it has numerous regional councillors in most French regions.
and Dieppe
, in some departments of central France, such as Allier
and Cher (where a form of sharecropping
existed, in addition to mining and small industrial-mining centres such as Commentry
and Montceau-les-Mines
), the industrial mining region of northern Meurthe-et-Moselle
(Longwy
) and in some cities of the south, such as the industrial areas of Marseille
and nearby towns, as well as the working-class suburbs surrounding Paris (the ceinture rouge), Lyon
, Saint-Étienne
, Alès
and Grenoble
. The PCF is also strong in the Cévennes
mountains, a left-wing rural anti-clerical stronghold with a strong Protestant
minority.
Communist traditions in the "Red Limousin
", the Pas-de-Calais, Paris proper, Nièvre
, Finistère, Alpes-Maritimes
and Var have been hurt significantly by demographic changes (Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Finistère), a loss of voters to the Socialist Party
due to good local Socialist infrastructure or strongmen (Nièvre, Pas-de-Calais, Paris) or due to the emergence of rival parties on the radical left (the Convention for a Progressive Alternative
, a party of reformist communists, in the Limousin
and Val-de-Marne
).
There exists isolated Communist bases in the rural anti-clerical areas of southwestern Côtes-d'Armor
and northwestern Morbihan
; in the industrial areas of Le Mans
; in the shipbuilding cities of Saint-Nazaire
, La Seyne-sur-Mer
(there are no more ships built in La Seyne); and in isolated industrial centres built along the old Paris-Lyon railway (The urban core of Romilly-sur-Seine
, Aube has elected a Communist general councillor since 1958).
Traditionally, it was also the owner of the French daily L'Humanité
(Humanity), founded by Jean Jaurès
.
Although the newspaper is now independent, it remains close to the PCF.
The paper is sustained by the annual Fête de L'Humanité festival, held in La Courneuve
, a working class suburb of Paris. This event remains the biggest festival in France with people during a three days festival.
During the 1970s, the PCF registered success with the children's magazine it founded, Pif gadget
.
Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
(UMP), and considerable influence in French politics: two presidencies of "conseil général", 186 seats in regional parliament, about 800 mayors. It is one of the most influential parties behind the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
and the UMP. The PCF remains the largest party in France advocating communist views.
Founded in 1920, it participated in three governments: in the provisional government of the Liberation (1944–1947), at the beginning of François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
's presidency (1981–1984) and in Plural Left's cabinet led by Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
(1997–2002). It was also the largest French left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
party in a number of national elections, from 1945 to the 1970s, before falling behind the Socialist Party (PS) in the 1980s. The PCF has lost further ground to the Socialists since that time.
Since its participation in François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
's government, the PCF has sometimes been considered by the far-left to be a social-democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
party. It supports alter-globalization
Alter-globalization
Alter-globalization is the name of a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not...
movements although it may sometimes also criticise them, in particular their lack of organisation.
After a poor performance in the 2007 French legislative election
French legislative election, 2007
The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions...
, the party did not have, for the first time since 1962, the minimum level of 20 deputies needed to form a parliamentary group by itself. The PCF then allied itself with The Greens
The Greens (France)
The Greens were a Green political party to the centre-left of the political spectrum in France. They had officially been in existence since 1984, but their spiritual roots could be traced as far back as René Dumont’s candidacy for the presidency in 1974...
and other left-wing MPs to form a parliamentary group to the left of the Socialist Party, called Democratic and Republican Left.
The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left
Party of the European Left
The Party of the European Left, commonly abbreviated to just the European Left, is a political party at European level and an association of democratic socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries. It was formed in January 2004 for the purposes of...
, and its MEP
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
s sit in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left
European United Left–Nordic Green Left
European United Left/Nordic Green Left is a left-wing political group with seats in the European Parliament since 1995.-Position:According to its 1994 constituent declaration, the group is opposed to the present European political structure, but committed to integration...
group.
Foundation
The PCF was founded in 1920 by those in the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) who supported the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and opposed World War I.Tensions within the Socialist Party had emerged in 1914 with the start of the First World War, which saw the majority of the SFIO take what left-wing socialists called a "social-chauvinist" line in support of the French war effort.
At the Tours congress
Tours Congress
The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25—30 December 1920...
of the SFIO in 1920, the left-wing faction (Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine was an Imperial Russian-born French socialist, communist activist, essayist, and journalist.-Early years:...
, Fernand Loriot) and the center faction (Ludovic Frossard, Marcel Cachin
Marcel Cachin
Marcel Cachin was a French politician.In 1891, Cachin joined Jules Guesde French Workers' Party . In 1905, he joined the new French Section of the Workers' International and won election to the Chamber of Deputies representing the Seine in 1914...
) had agreed to join the Third International, and consequently to fulfill the 21 conditions imposed by Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
. They obtained 3/4 of the votes of the representatives and split away to form the Section Française de l'Internationale Communiste (SFIC). Nevertheless, the majority of the elects and MPs was reluctant towards the principle of the "democratic centralism
Democratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
", written in Lenin's conditions, and remained in the SFIO.
The founders of the SFIC took with themselves the party paper L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
, founded by Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
in 1904, which remained tied to the party until the 1990s. The newly created party, later renamed Parti Communiste Français (PCF), was three times larger than the SFIO ( members). Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
, who would create the Viet Minh
Viet Minh
Việt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pac Bo on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China...
in 1941 and then declare the independence of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, was one of the founding members.
1920s and early 1930s
Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine was an Imperial Russian-born French socialist, communist activist, essayist, and journalist.-Early years:...
), and within a few years, its support declined; for most of the 1920s it was a small and isolated party. Its first elected deputies were opposed to the Cartel des Gauches
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
coalition formed by the SFIO and the Radical-Socialist Party
Radical-Socialist Party (France)
The Radical Party , is a liberal and centrist political party in France. The Radicals are currently the fourth-largest party in the National Assembly, with 21 seats...
. The first Cartel governed from 1924 to 1926.
The Communist Party attracted various intellectuals and artists in the 1920s
French art of the 20th century
20th-century French art developed out of the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism that dominated French art at the end of the 19th century. The first half of the 20th century in France saw the even more revolutionary experiments of cubism, dada and surrealism, artistic movements that would have a...
, including André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
, the leader of the Surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
movement, Henri Lefebvre
Henri Lefebvre
Henri Lefebvre was a French sociologist, Marxist intellectual, and philosopher, best known for his work on dialectics, Marxism, everyday life, cities, and space.-Biography:...
(who would be expelled in 1958), Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
, Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
, etc.
The PCF was the main organizer of a counter-exhibition to the 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris, called "The Truth about the Colonies". In the first section, it recalled Albert Londres
Albert Londres
Albert Londres was a French journalist and writer. One of the inventors of investigative journalism, he criticized abuses of colonialism such as forced labour. Albert Londres gave his name to a journalism prize for Francophone journalists.- Biography :Londres was born in Vichy in 1884...
and André Gide
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
's critics of forced labour in the colonies and others crimes of the New Imperialism
New Imperialism
New Imperialism refers to the colonial expansion adopted by Europe's powers and, later, Japan and the United States, during the 19th and early 20th centuries; expansion took place from the French conquest of Algeria until World War I: approximately 1830 to 1914...
period; in the second section, it opposed "imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
" to "the Soviets' policy on nationalities".
The second Cartel des gauches was elected in 1932. This time, although the PCF did not take part in the coalition, it did support the government without participating in it (soutien sans participation), in the same way that before World War I (1914–18) the Socialists had supported the Republicans
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
and the Radicals' governments without participating. This second Cartel fell following the far-right 6 February 1934 riots, which forced president of the Council Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.-Career:Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck and large shoulders and determined...
to pass on the power to conservative Gaston Doumergue
Gaston Doumergue
Pierre-Paul-Henri-Gaston Doumergue was a French politician of the Third Republic.Doumergue came from a Protestant family. Beginning as a Radical, he turned more towards the political right in his old age. He served as Prime Minister from 9 December 1913 to 2 June 1914...
. Following this crisis, the PCF, as the whole of the socialist movement, feared that a fascist conspiracy had almost succeeded. Furthermore, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's access to power in 1933 and the destruction of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
following the 27 February 1933 Reichstag fire
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....
and Stalin's new "popular front" policy led the PCF to get closer to the SFIO. Thus, the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
was prepared, and got elected in 1936.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
and the following Great Depression, which affected France in 1931, caused much anxiety and disturbance, as in other countries. As economic liberalism
Economic liberalism
Economic liberalism is the ideological belief in giving all people economic freedom, and as such granting people with more basis to control their own lives and make their own mistakes. It is an economic philosophy that supports and promotes individual liberty and choice in economic matters and...
failed, new solutions were being looked for. The technocracy
Technocracy (bureaucratic)
Technocracy is a form of government where technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Economists, engineers, scientists, health professionals, and those who have knowledge, expertise or skills would compose the governing body...
ideas were born during this time (Groupe X-Crise
Groupe X-Crise
The Groupe X-Crise was a French technocratic movement created in 1931 as an aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street stock market crash and the Great Depression. Formed by former students of the École Polytechnique , it advocated planisme, or economic planification, as opposed to the then dominant...
), as well as autarky
Autarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
and corporativism in the fascism movement, which advocated union of workers' and employers. Some socialist members became attracted to these new ideas, among whom Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot was a French politician prior to and during World War II. He began as a Communist but then turned Fascist.-Early life and politics:...
. A member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern from 1922 on, and from 1923 on Secretary of the French Federation of Young Communists, later elected to the French Chamber of Deputies, he came to advocate an alliance between the Communists and Social Democrats. Doriot was then expelled in 1934, and with his followers. Afterwards he moved sharply to the right and formed the French Popular Party, which would be one of the most collaborationist
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
parties during Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
.
In 1934 the Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
n Federation of PCF became the Tunisian Communist Party
Tunisian Communist Party
Tunisian Communist Party was a political party in Tunisia. PCT was founded in 1934, as the Tunisian Federation of the French Communist Party was converted into an independent organization. The party was banned by the Vichy regime in 1939, but in 1943 the party was able to operate legally again. It...
.
The Popular Front
During the 1930s the PCF grew rapidly in size and influence, its growth fuelled by the popularity of the Comintern's Popular FrontPopular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
strategy, which allowed an alliance
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
with the SFIO and the Radical Party to fight against fascism. The Popular Front won the 1936 elections, and Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
formed a Socialist-Radical government. The PCF supported this government but did not join it. The Popular Front government soon collapsed under the strain of domestic (financial problems, including inflation) and foreign policy issues (the radicals were against an intervention in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
while the socialists and communists were in favour), and was replaced by Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.-Career:Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck and large shoulders and determined...
's government.
On 12 August 1936, a party organization was formed in Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, the Communist Party (French Section of the Communist International) of the Region of Madagascar.
World War II
After the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop PactMolotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
and the outbreak of conflict in the European Theatre of World War II in 1939, the PCF was declared a proscribed organisation by Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.-Career:Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck and large shoulders and determined...
's government. At first the PCF reaffirmed its commitment to national defense, but after Comintern addressed French Communists by declaring the war to be 'imperialist', the party changed its stance. PCF members of Parliament signed a letter calling for peace and a favorable view of Hitler's forthcoming peace proposals. Party leader Maurice Thorez
Maurice Thorez
thumb|A Soviet stamp depicting Maurice Thorez.Maurice Thorez was a French politician and longtime leader of the French Communist Party from 1930 until his death. He also served as vice premier of France from 1946 to 1947....
deserted the army and fled to Moscow in order to escape prosecution.
During the occupation the relationship between the Communists and the occupation was strained. One of the major actions organized by the Communists against the occupation forces was a demonstration of thousands of students and workers, which was staged in Paris on 11 November 1940. In May 1941, the PCF helped to organize more than 100,000 miners in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments in a strike. On 26 April 1941, the PCF called for a National Front for the independence of France with the Gaullists.
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the PCF expanded Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
efforts within France notably advocating the use of direct action and political assassinations which had not been systematically organized up until this point. By 1944 the PCF had reached the height of its influence, controlling large areas of the country through the Resistance units under its command. Some in the PCF wanted to launch a revolution as the Germans withdrew from the country, but the leadership, acting on Stalin's instructions, opposed this and adopted a policy of co-operating with the Allied powers and advocating a new Popular Front government. Many well-known figures joined the party during the war, including Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, who joined the PCF in 1944.
Fourth Republic (1947–58)
The Communists had done particularly well from their war-time efforts in the ResistanceFrench Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
, in terms of both organisation and prestige. With the liberation of France in 1944, the PCF, along with other resistance groups, entered the government of Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
. As in post-war Italy, the communists were at that time very popular and a strong political force. The PCF was nicknamed the "party of the 75,000 executed people" (le parti des 75 000 fusillés) because of its important role during the Resistance,
By the close of 1945 party membership stood at half a million, an enormous increase from its pre-Popular Front figure of less than thirty thousand. In the elections of 21 October 1945 for the then-unicameral interim Constitutional National Assembly, the PCF had 159 deputies elected out of 586 seats. Two subsequent elections in 1946, first still for the Constitutional National Assembly, then for the National Assembly of the new Fourth Republic
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...
– now the lower house of a bicameral system – gave very similar results. In the election of November 1946, the PCF received the most votes of any party, finishing narrowly ahead of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and the Christian democratic
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
Popular Republican Movement
Popular Republican Movement
The Popular Republican Movement was a French Christian democratic party of the Fourth Republic...
(MRP). The party's strong electoral showing and surge in membership led some observers, including American under-secretary of state Dean Acheson
Dean Acheson
Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War...
, to believe that a Communist takeover of France was imminent. However, as in Italy, the PCF was forced to quit Paul Ramadier
Paul Ramadier
Paul Ramadier was a prominent French politician of the Third and Fourth Republics. Mayor of Decazeville starting in 1919, he served as the first Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic in 1947. On 10 July 1940, he voted against the granting of the full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain, who...
's government in May 1947 in order to secure Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
aid from the United States.
The Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI) was never to return to power, despite a historic compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
attempt in the 1970s, and the PCF was also isolated until François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
's electoral victory in 1981. A strong political force, the PCF nevertheless remained isolated due to persistent anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
. It thus began to pursue a more militant policy, alienating it from the SFIO and allowing the right-wing parties to stay in power.
The PCF, no longer restrained by the responsibilities of office, was free after 1947 to channel the widespread discontent among the working class with the poor economic performance of the new Fourth Republic. Furthermore, the Party was under orders from Moscow to take a more radical course, reminiscent of the Third Period
Third Period
The Third Period is a ideological concept adopted by the Communist International at its 6th World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928....
policy once pursued by the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. In September 1947 several European Communist parties came to a meeting at Szklarska Poręba in Poland, where a new international agency, the Cominform
Cominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
, was set up. During this meeting Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
, standing in for Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, denounced the 'moderation' of the French Communists, even though this policy had been previously approved by Moscow.
Out of government, and newly instructed, the PCF denounced the administration as the tool of American capitalism. Following the arrest of some steel workers in Marseille in November, the Confédération Générale du Travail
Confédération générale du travail
The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
(CGT), the Communist dominated Trade Union confederation, called a strike, as PCF activists attacked the town hall and other 'bourgeoise' targets in the city. When the protests spread to Paris, and as many as 3 million workers came out on strike, Ramadier resigned, fearing that he faced a general insurrection. This is probably the closest France came to a Communist take-over.
This development was prevented by the determination of Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman was a noted Luxembourgish-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat and an independent political thinker and activist...
, the new Prime Minister, and Jules Moch
Jules Moch
Jules Salvador Moch was a French politician.-Biography:...
, his Minister of the Interior. It was also prevented by a growing sense of disquiet among sections of the labour movement with Communist tactics, which included the derailment in early December of the Paris-Tourcoing Express, which left twenty-one people dead. Sensing a change of mood, the CGT leadership backed down and called off the strikes. From this point forward the PCF moved into permanent opposition and political isolation, a large but impotent presence on the political map of France.
During the 1950s, the PCF critically supported French imperialism during the Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
(1947–54) and the Algerian War
Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria's gaining its independence from France...
(1954–62), although many French communists also worked against colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
. Thus Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, a "comrade" of the Communist party, actively supported the National Liberation Front
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...
(FLN) (the porteurs de valises networks
Jeanson network
The Jeanson network was a group of French communist militants led by Francis Jeanson who helped Algerian National Liberation Front agents operating in the French metropolitan territory during the Algerian War. They were mainly involved in carrying money and papers for the Algerians and were...
, in which Henri Curiel
Henri Curiel
Henri Curiel was a left-wing political activist. Born in Egypt, Curiel led the communist Democratic Movement for National Liberation until he was expelled from the country in 1950. Settling in France, Curiel aided the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale and other national liberation causes...
took part). Long debates took place on the role of conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
. While this stance by the PCF may have helped it retain widespread popularity in metropolitan France, it lost it credibility on the radical left. During his scholarship to study radio engineering in Paris (from 1949 to 1953), Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
, like many other colonial elites educated in France (Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
in 1920), joined the French Communist Party.
The second half of the 1950s was also marked by some dissatisfaction with the pro-Moscow line continuously pursued by party leaders. However, no definitive eurocommunist
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
aspirations developed at the time. A major split occurred as Maoists
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
left during the late 1950s. Some moderate communist intellectuals, such as historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie is a French historian whose work is mainly focused upon Languedoc in the ancien regime, particularly the history of the peasantry.-Early life and career:...
, disillusioned with the policies of the Soviet Union, left the party after the violent suppression of Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
In 1959 the PCF federation in Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
was separated from the party, and became the Reunionese Communist Party.
1960s and 1970s
In 1958, the PCF was the only big party which opposed Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's return to power and the French Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
. Little by little, it was joined in opposition by the center and center-left parties. It advocated left-wing union against De Gaulle. Waldeck Rochet
Waldeck Rochet
Waldeck Rochet was a French communist politician.-Early life and career:...
became PCF leader after Thorez's death in 1964.
In the mid 1960s the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 260 000 (0.9% of the working age population of France).
For the 1965 presidential election
French presidential election, 1965
The 1965 French presidential election was the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage of the Fifth Republic. It was also the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage since the Second Republic in 1848. It was won by incumbent president Charles de Gaulle who resigned...
, thinking a Communist candidate could not obtain a good result, it supported the candidacy of François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
. Then, it made an electoral agreement with the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
The Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left was a conglomerate of French left-wing non-Communist forces. It was founded to support François Mitterrand's candidature at the 1965 presidential election and to couter-balance the Communist preponderance over the French left...
coming up to 1967 legislative election
French legislative election, 1967
French legislative elections took place on 5 and 12 March 1967 to elect the 3rd National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.In December 1965, Charles de Gaulle was re-elected President of France in the first Presidential election by universal suffrage. However, contrary to predictions, there had been a...
.
In May 1968 widespread student riots and strikes broke out in France. The PCF initially supported the general strike but opposed the revolutionary student movement, which was dominated by Trotskyists
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
, Maoists
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
and anarchists, and the so-called "new social movements" (including environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
s, gay movements, prisoners' movement – see Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, etc.) At the end of May 1968, the PCF sided with de Gaulle, who was threatening the use of the army, and called for the end of the strike. The PCF also alienated many on the left by failing to condemn clearly the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
, even though it expressed its surprise and disapproval.
Nevertheless, the PCF benefited from the left-wing mood of the period, and from the collapse of the socialists. Because of Waldeck Rochet's ill health, Jacques Duclos
Jacques Duclos
Jacques Duclos was a French Communist politician who played a key role in French politics from 1926, when he entered the French National Assembly after defeating Paul Reynaud, until 1969, when he won a substantial portion of the vote in the presidential elections.During World War I, Duclos fought...
was the candidate at the 1969 presidential election
French presidential election, 1969
The 1969 French presidential election took place on 1 June and 15 June 1969. It occurred due to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969. Indeed, De Gaulle had decided to consult the voters by referendum about regionalisation and the reform of the Senate, and he had announced...
. Duclos polled 21% of the vote, completely eclipsing the SFIO whom, represented by Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre was a French socialist politician.-Biography:Lawyer and member of the French Section of the Workers' International political party, he was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistance Socialist group during World War II...
, came in third in the first round. For the second round, the PCF refused to distinguish between Gaullist
Gaullism
Gaullism is a French political ideology based on the thought and action of Resistance leader then president Charles de Gaulle.-Foreign policy:...
Georges Pompidou
Georges Pompidou
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...
and Centrist Alain Poher
Alain Poher
Alain Émile Louis Marie Poher was a French centrist politician, affiliated first with the Popular Republican Movement and later with the Democratic Centre. He served as a Senator for Val-de-Marne from 1946 to 1995. He was President of the Senate from 3 October 1968 to 1 October 1992 and, in that...
, considering that was "six of one and half a dozen of the other" (in French: blanc bonnet ou bonnet blanc).
In 1970, Roger Garaudy
Roger Garaudy
Roger Garaudy or Ragaa Garaudy is a French philosopher. Formerly a prominent communist author, he has converted to Islam and written several books which have been controversial due to his anti-Zionist positions and denial of the Holocaust.-Early life, politics and religion:Born to Catholic and...
, a member of the Central Committee of the PCF from 1945 on, was expelled from the party for his revisionist tendencies, being criticised for his attempt to reconcile Marxism with Roman Catholicism. Starting in 1982, Garaudy emerged as a major Holocaust denier
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
and was effectively condemned in 1998.
In 1972 Waldeck Rochet was succeeded by Georges Marchais
Georges Marchais
Georges René Louis Marchais was the head of the French Communist Party from 1972 to 1994, and a candidate in the French presidential elections of 1981 - in which he managed to garner only 15.34% of the vote, which was considered at the time a major setback for the party.-Early life:Born into a...
, who had effectively controlled the party since 1970. Marchais began a moderate liberalisation of the party's policies and internal life, although dissident members, particularly intellectuals, continued to be expelled. The PCF entered an alliance with Mitterrand's new Socialist Party (PS). They signed a Common Programme in view to the 1973 legislative election
French legislative election, 1973
French legislative elections took place on 4 and 11 March 1973 to elect the 5th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.In order to end the May 1968 crisis, President Charles de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and his party, the Gaullist Party Union of Democrats for the Republic , obtained...
. The difference between the two parties decreased: the PCF had taken 21.5% of the vote as against 19% for the PS.
Nominally the French communists supported Mitterrand's candidacy in 1974 presidential election
French presidential election, 1974
Presidential elections were held in :France in 1974, following the death of President Georges Pompidou. They went to a second round, and were won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by a margin of 1.6%...
, but the Soviet ambassador to Paris and the director of L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
did not hide their satisfaction with Mitterrand's defeat. According to Jean Lacouture
Jean Lacouture
Jean Lacouture is a journalist, historian and author. He is particularly famous for his biographies. - Biography :...
, Raymond Aron
Raymond Aron
Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron was a French philosopher, sociologist, journalist and political scientist.He is best known for his 1955 book The Opium of the Intellectuals, the title of which inverts Karl Marx's claim that religion was the opium of the people -- in contrast, Aron argued that in...
and François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
himself, the Soviet government and the French communist leaders had done everything in order to prevent Mitterrand from being elected: they regarded him as too anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
and too skillful in his strategy of rebalancing the Left on account of PCF.
During Mitterrand's term as PS first secretary, the socialists re-emerged as the principal party of the left. Indeed, Marchais asked to update the Common Programme, but the negotiations failed. The PS accused Marchais of being responsible for the division of the left and of its defeat at the 1978 legislative election
French legislative election, 1978
The French legislative elections took place on 12 March and 19 March 1978 to elect the 6th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 2 April 1974 President Georges Pompidou died. The non-Gaullist center-right leader Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected to succeed him...
. For the first time since 1936, the PCF lost its place as "first left-wing party", which the Socialists assumed.
At the 22nd party congress in February 1976, reeling from fallout caused by the publication of The Gulag Archipelago
The Gulag Archipelago
The Gulag Archipelago is a book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn based on the Soviet forced labor and concentration camp system. The three-volume book is a narrative relying on eyewitness testimony and primary research material, as well as the author's own experiences as a prisoner in a gulag labor camp...
, the PCF abandoned the dictatorship of the proletariat
Dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
and references to it; it began to follow a line closer to that of the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
's eurocommunism
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
. However, this was only a relative change of direction, as the PCF globally remained loyal to Moscow, and in 1979, Georges Marchais
Georges Marchais
Georges René Louis Marchais was the head of the French Communist Party from 1972 to 1994, and a candidate in the French presidential elections of 1981 - in which he managed to garner only 15.34% of the vote, which was considered at the time a major setback for the party.-Early life:Born into a...
supported the invasion of Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
. Its assessment of the Soviet and East-European Communist governments was "positive overall".
Marchais was a candidate in the 1981 presidential election
French presidential election, 1981
The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic....
. During the campaign, he criticized the "turn to the right" of the PS. But some Communist voters, wanting the left-wing union in order to win after 23 years in opposition, chose Mitterrand. The PS leader obtained 25% against 15% for Marchais. For the second round, the PCF called on its supporters to vote for Mitterrand, who was elected President of France.
Decline
Under Mitterrand the PCF held ministerial office for the first time since 1947, but this had the effect of locking the PCF into Mitterrand's reformist agenda, and the PCF's more moderate supporters drained away to the PS.When PCF ministers resigned in 1984 to protest Mitterrand's change of economic policies, the party's electoral decline accelerated. André Lajoinie
André Lajoinie
André Lajoinie is a French politician, and a member of the French Communist Party .He was a member of the French National Assembly for Allier from 1978 to 1993, then from 1997 to 2002, and was president of the Communist group in the Assembly from 1981 to 1993.A close collaborator of party leader...
obtained only 6.7% in the 1988 presidential election
French presidential election, 1988
Presidential elections were held in France on 24 April and 8 May 1988.In 1981, the Socialist Party leader, François Mitterrand, was elected President of France and the Left won the legislative election. However, in 1986, the Right regained a parliamentary majority. President Mitterrand was forced...
. From 1988 to 1993, the PCF supported the Socialist governments at various times, depending on the issues.
The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a crisis in the PCF, but it did not follow the example of some other European communist parties by dissolving itself or changing its name. In 1994 Marchais retired and was succeeded by Robert Hue
Robert Hue
Robert Hue, in full Robert Georges Auguste Hue , is a French politician who was National Secretary of the French Communist Party from 1994 to 2001 and President of the PCF from 2001 to 2002...
. Under Hue the party embarked on a process called la mutation. La mutation, which included the thorough reorganization of party structure and move away from Leninist dogmas, was intended to revitalize the stagnant left and attract non-affiliated leftists to join the party. However, it failed to stop the decline of the party. Under Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
(the socialist who was prime minister under president Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
from 1997 to 2002), the PCF again held ministerial offices from 1997 to 2002 (Jean-Claude Gayssot
Jean-Claude Gayssot
Jean-Claude Gayssot is a French politician. A member of the French Communist Party , he was Minister of Transportation in Lionel Jospin 's government, from 1997 to 2002. He gave his name to the 1990 Gayssot Act repressing Holocaust denial and speech in favor of racial discrimination...
as Minister of Transportation
Minister of Transportation (France)
The Minister of Transport is a cabinet member in the Government of France. The position was created in 1870 as a modification of that of the Minister of Public Works...
, etc.). The party became riddled with internal conflict, as many sectors opposed la mutation and the policy of co-governing with the Socialists.
In the first round of the 2002 presidential elections
French presidential election, 2002
The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in...
, Hue received just 3.4% of the vote. For the first time, the PCF candidate obtained fewer votes than the Trotskyist candidates (Arlette Laguiller
Arlette Laguiller
Arlette Yvonne Laguiller is a French Trotskyist politician. Since 1973, she has been the spokeswoman and the best known leader and perennial candidate of the Lutte Ouvrière political party...
and Olivier Besancenot
Olivier Besancenot
Olivier Besancenot is a French far left political figure and trade unionist, and the founding main spokesperson of the New Anticapitalist Party from 2009 to 2011....
). In the 2002 legislative elections
French legislative election, 2002
-12th Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...
, the PCF came in fourth, polling 4.8% of the vote (the same as the center-right Union for French Democracy
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
, UDF) and won 21 seats. Chirac's UMP came in first, followed by the Socialist Party, the National Front, UDF, PCF, the Greens, and then the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League
Revolutionary Communist League (France)
See Revolutionary Communist League for the other Ligue communiste révolutionnaire.The Revolutionary Communist League was a French democratic revolutionary socialist political party. It was the French section of the Fourth International...
(LCR) and Lutte Ouvrière. Eventually Robert Hue had to resign, and in 2002 Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet is a French politician. She was the head of the French Communist Party from 2001 to 2010. She joined the Party in 1969, and was the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports from June 4, 1997 to May 5, 2002. Ms...
took over the leadership of the party. Under Buffet the party embarked on a process of reconstruction, reversing some of the moves made during la mutation.
In 2005, during the referendum campaign on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...
(TCE), the PCF supported the 'No' side alongside other left-wing groups, much of the Socialist Party, the Greens, and right wing eurosceptics
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...
. The victory of the 'No' vote, along with a campaign against the Bolkestein directive, earned the party some positive publicity.
In 2005, a labour conflict at the SNCM
SNCM
SNCM is a French ferry company operating in the Mediterranean.Its ferries sail from Marseille, Toulon, Nice on mainland France, Calvi, Bastia, Ajaccio, Ile Rousse, Propriano, and Porto Vecchio on Corsica, Porto Torres on Sardinia, Algiers, Oran, Skikda and Bejaia in Algeria as well as Tunis in...
in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, followed by a 4 October 2005 demonstration against the New Employment Contract (CNE) marked the opposition to Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
's right-wing government, who shared his authority with Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
as Ministry of Interior, leader of the UMP right-wing party and already then a probable 2007 presidential candidate. Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet is a French politician. She was the head of the French Communist Party from 2001 to 2010. She joined the Party in 1969, and was the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports from June 4, 1997 to May 5, 2002. Ms...
also heavily criticized the government's response to the riots in autumn
2005 civil unrest in France
The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots by mostly Muslim North African youths in Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois...
, speaking of a deliberate "strategy of tension
Strategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
" employed by Sarkozy who called youth from the housing projects "scum" (racaille) which needed to be cleaned up with a "Kärcher
Kärcher
Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of cleaning systems and equipment, known for its high-pressure cleaners.- History :The inventor Alfred Kärcher from Baden-Württemberg founded the company in 1935. Initially Kärcher specialised in the design of industrial submersible heating...
" high pressure hose. While most of the Socialist deputies voted for the declaration of a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
during the riots, which lasted until January 2006, the PCF, along with the Greens, opposed it.
In 2006, the PCF and other left-wing groups supported protests against the First Employment Contract, which finally forced president Chirac to scrap plans for the bill, aimed at creating a more flexible labour law
Labour and employment law
Labour law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees...
.
During the run-up to the first round of the 2007 presidential election
French presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
, Buffet hoped that her candidacy would be supported by the left-wing groups who had participated in the "No" campaign in the referendum on the EU constitution. This support was not forthcoming and she scored only 1.94%, even less than Robert Hue's 3.4% in the previous presidential election. The PCF's score was low even in its traditional strongholds such as the "red belt" around Paris. The disastrously low vote means that the PCF has not met the 5% threshold for reimbursement of its campaign expenses, and could portend a similarly low vote in the next general election. However, the party had prepared for this eventuality, and thus kept its expenses low for the presidential campaign. However, its very low score at the subsequent legislative elections did weigh a lot on its budget. One possible reason for this particularly low vote is that some PCF supporters may have voted tactically for Ségolène Royal so as to be sure that a candidate from the left would be present in the second round runoff. Another factor seems to have been competition from the young and charismatic candidate, Olivier Besancenot
Olivier Besancenot
Olivier Besancenot is a French far left political figure and trade unionist, and the founding main spokesperson of the New Anticapitalist Party from 2009 to 2011....
, of the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League
Revolutionary Communist League
The Revolutionary Communist League can refer to one of several different parties:*Japan Revolutionary Communist League*Revolutionary Communist League *Revolutionary Communist League...
).
In the legislative election of 2007
French legislative election, 2007
The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions...
, the PCF gained 15 seats, five below the minimum required to form a parliamentary group by itself. This was the first time the PCF had ever fallen below that threshold in the history of the Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
. The PCF subsequently allied itself with The Greens
The Greens (France)
The Greens were a Green political party to the centre-left of the political spectrum in France. They had officially been in existence since 1984, but their spiritual roots could be traced as far back as René Dumont’s candidacy for the presidency in 1974...
and other left-wing MP's to be able to form a parliamentary group to the left of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
, called Democratic and Republican Left. Although the PCF and the Greens agree on a number of issues, especially on economic and social policies (consensus on the necessity to support lower classes, right of foreigners to vote
Right of foreigners to vote
Suffrage, the right to vote in a particular country, generally derives from citizenship. In most countries, the right to vote is reserved to those who possess the citizenship of the country in question. Some countries, however, have extended suffrage rights to non-citizens...
at municipal elections, regularisation of aliens, etc.), but also on others themes (by contrast with the Socialist Party, both refused to vote for the state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
during the 2005 civil unrest, they also distinguished themselves on a number of other issues, including the use of nuclear energy
Nuclear power in France
Nuclear power is the primary source of electric power in France. In 2004, 425.8 TWh out of the country's total production of 540.6 TWh of electricity was from nuclear power , the highest percentage in the world....
.
In the municipal elections of 2008
French municipal elections, 2008
The French municipal elections of 2008 were held on 9 March in that year to elect the municipal councils of France's 36,782 communes...
, the PCF fared better than expected. It won Dieppe
Dieppe, Seine-Maritime
Dieppe is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in France. In 1999, the population of the whole Dieppe urban area was 81,419.A port on the English Channel, famous for its scallops, and with a regular ferry service from the Gare Maritime to Newhaven in England, Dieppe also has a popular pebbled...
, Saint Claude
Saint-Claude, Jura
Saint-Claude is a commune in the Jura department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France.The town was originally named Saint-Oyand after Saint Eugendus. However, when St...
, Firminy
Firminy
Firminy is a commune in the Loire department in central France.It lies on the Ondaine River 8 mi. S.W. of Saint-Étienne by rail.-Sights:Two historic churches from the 12th and 16th centuries are located here...
and Vierzon
Vierzon
Vierzon is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre region of France.-Geography:A medium-sized town by the banks of the Cher River with some light industry and an area of forestry and farming to the north...
as well as other smaller towns and kept most of its large towns, such as Arles
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....
, Bagneux
Bagneux, Hauts-de-Seine
Bagneux is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Transport:Bagneux is served by Bagneux station on Paris RER line B...
, Bobigny
Bobigny
Bobigny is a commune, or town, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Bobigny is the préfecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Bobigny...
, Champigny-sur-Marne
Champigny-sur-Marne
Champigny-sur-Marne is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Name:Champigny-sur-Marne was originally called simply Champigny...
, Echirolles
Échirolles
Échirolles is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.It is the second-largest suburb of the city of Grenoble, and is adjacent to it on the south. In the 1999 census, Échirolles had a population of 35,383. Its inhabitants are called the Échirollois...
, Fontenay-sous-Bois
Fontenay-sous-Bois
Fontenay-sous-Bois is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Name:The name Fontenay was recorded in the Middle Ages as Fontanetum, meaning "the springs", from Medieval Latin fontana .The commune was known alternatively as Fontenay-les-Bois ,...
, Gardanne
Gardanne
Gardanne is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Geography:It is close to Aix-en-Provence and Marseille and lies on the rail link connecting the two cities.-History:Walls dating back to the first century AD have been found....
, Gennevilliers
Gennevilliers
Gennevilliers is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-History:On 9 April 1929, one-fifth of the territory of Gennevilliers was detached and became the commune of Villeneuve-la-Garenne.-Transport:...
, Givors
Givors
Givors is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It lies on the Rhône River about south of Lyon and on the main road between that city and Saint-Étienne. The city has long served as a crossroads between the communities of the Rhône River and those of the Loire River...
, Malakoff
Malakoff
Malakoff is a suburban commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department southwest of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of the city.-History:The commune of Malakoff was created on 8 November 1883 by detaching its territory from the commune of Vanves...
, Martigues
Martigues
Martigues is a commune northwest of Marseille. It is part of the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the eastern end of the Canal de Caronte....
, Nanterre
Nanterre
Nanterre is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located west of the center of Paris.Nanterre is the capital of the Hauts-de-Seine department as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Nanterre....
, Stains
Stains
Stains is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Heraldry:-Transport:Stains is served by Pierrefitte – Stains station on Paris RER line D...
, Venissieux
Vénissieux
Vénissieux is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France. It is the second-largest suburb of the city of Lyon, and is adjacent to the southeast.-Transport:...
. However, the PCF lost some key communes
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
on the second round, such as Montreuil
Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis
Montreuil is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is the third most populous suburb of Paris...
, Aubervilliers
Aubervilliers
Aubervilliers is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Name:In medieval times the name Aubervilliers was recorded as Alberti Villare, meaning "estate of Adalbert"...
and particularly Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
, where an UMP candidate ousted the PCF after 37 years.
In the 2009 European Parliament election
European Parliament election, 2009 (France)
European elections to elect 72 French Members of the European Parliament were held on Sunday 7 June 2009.Due to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Union in 2007, the number of seats allocated to France was revised from 78 seats to 72 seats, a loss of 6 seats...
, the party ran as part of the Left Front
Left Front (France)
The Left Front is a French electoral coalition for the 2009 European elections composed primarily of the French Communist Party, the Left Party and the Unitarian Left...
with the Convention for a Progressive Alternative
Convention for a Progressive Alternative
The Convention for a Progressive Alternative is a French left-wing political party founded in 1994.It was founded by reformist Communists , Socialists, Trotskyists and others...
and the Left Party
Left Party (France)
The Left Party is a French democratic socialist political party. It seeks to emulate the German political party Die Linke led by Gesine Lötzsch and Klaus Ernst.- History :...
. The Left Front won five seats and increase of two.
The PCF has chosen Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a French politician who served in the government of France as Minister of Vocational Education from 2000 to 2002. He was also a member of the Senate of France, representing the Essonne department...
to represent him at the French presidential election 2012.
Elected officials
- Deputies: Marie-Hélène AmiableMarie-Hélène AmiableMarie-Hélène Amiable is a member of the National Assembly of France. She represents the 11th constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine département, and is a member of the Communist Party .-References:...
, François AsensiFrançois AsensiFrançois Asensi is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Seine-Saint-Denis department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-External links:*...
, Alain BocquetAlain BocquetAlain Bocquet is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Nord department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
, Patrick BraouezecPatrick BraouezecPatrick Braouezec is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Seine-Saint-Denis department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
, Marie-George BuffetMarie-George BuffetMarie-George Buffet is a French politician. She was the head of the French Communist Party from 2001 to 2010. She joined the Party in 1969, and was the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports from June 4, 1997 to May 5, 2002. Ms...
, Jean-Jacques CandelierJean-Jacques CandelierJean-Jacques Candelier is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Nord department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
, André ChassaigneAndré ChassaigneAndré Chassaigne is a member of the National Assembly of France for the French Communist Party. He represents the Puy-de-Dôme department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
, Jacqueline FraysseJacqueline FraysseJacqueline Fraysse-Cazalis is a French cardiologist and politician. A member of the French Communist Party, she currently serves in the National Assembly of France, where she is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine. She was elected to the 13th legislature on June 17...
, André GerinAndré GerinAndré Gerin is a French politician who is currently a Deputy in the National Assembly of France. He has been elected in the Rhône department, and is a member of the French Communist Party.-References:...
, Pierre GosnatPierre GosnatPierre Gosnat is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Val-de-Marne department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
, Maxime GremetzMaxime GremetzMaxime Gremetz is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Somme department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
, Jean-Paul LecoqJean-Paul LecoqJean-Paul Lecoq is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Seine-Maritime department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
, Roland MuzeauRoland MuzeauRoland Muzeau is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the first constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine department, and is a member of the French Communist Party, which sits in the Assembly with the Democratic and Republican Left.-References:...
, Daniel PaulDaniel PaulFor the Mi'kmaq Elder see Daniel N. PaulDaniel Paul is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Seine-Maritime department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
, Jean-Claude SandrierJean-Claude SandrierJean-Claude Sandrier is a French politician and former Mayor of Bourges. He is a member of the French Communist Party....
, Michel VaxèsMichel VaxèsMichel Vaxès is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Bouches-du-Rhône department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...
(GDR Group). In addition, Jean-Pierre BrardJean-Pierre BrardJean-Pierre Brard, , is a French politician.-Biography:Initially a teacher, he entered politics and was elected was deputy mayor of Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis a post he held until 1984, when he was elected mayor of the same city. He remained mayor until March 2008. He has also been a deputy to...
is a member of the Convention for a Progressive AlternativeConvention for a Progressive AlternativeThe Convention for a Progressive Alternative is a French left-wing political party founded in 1994.It was founded by reformist Communists , Socialists, Trotskyists and others...
but is considered to be close to the PCF and Huguette BelloHuguette BelloHuguette Bello is a politician from Réunion and a member of the Reunionese Communist Party .She is a deputy in the French National Assembly where she sits in the Gauche démocrate et républicaine parliamentary group, which includes the Greens, the French Communist Party and other left-wing...
is a member of the independent unaffiliated Communist Party of RéunionCommunist Party of RéunionThe Communist Party of Réunion is a Communist political party in the French overseas department of Réunion . The party has one seat in the French National Assembly.-History:...
. - Senators: Éliane AssassiÉliane AssassiÉliane Assassi is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Seine-Saint-Denis department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Marie-France BeaufilsMarie-France BeaufilsMarie-France Beaufils is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Indre-et-Loire department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Michel BilloutMichel BilloutMichel Billout is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Seine-et-Marne department. He is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Nicole Borvo Cohen-Seat, Jean-Claude DanglotJean-Claude DanglotJean-Claude Danglot is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Pas-de-Calais department. He is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group. He succeeded Yves Coquelle, who resigned for reasons of health in 2007.-References:*...
, Annie DavidAnnie DavidAnnie David is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Isère department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Michelle DemessineMichelle DemessineMichelle Demessine is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Nord department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Évelyne DidierÉvelyne DidierÉvelyne Didier is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Meurthe-et-Moselle department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.- Other positions held :* Mayor of Conflans-en-Jarnisy since 2008....
, Guy FischerGuy FischerGuy Fischer is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Rhône department. He is a member of the French Communist Party and of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Thierry FoucaudThierry FoucaudThierry Foucaud is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Seine-Maritime department. He is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Brigitte Gonthier-MaurinBrigitte Gonthier-MaurinBrigitte Gonthier-Maurin is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Hauts-de-Seine department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Robert HueRobert HueRobert Hue, in full Robert Georges Auguste Hue , is a French politician who was National Secretary of the French Communist Party from 1994 to 2001 and President of the PCF from 2001 to 2002...
, Gérard Le CamGérard Le CamGérard Le Cam is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Côtes-d'Armor department. He is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Josiane MathonJosiane Mathon-PoinatJosiane Mathon-Poinat is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Loire department. She is a member of the French Communist Party and of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group. Mathon-Poinat was first elected to the Senate on September 3, 2001.-References:*...
, Isabelle PasquetIsabelle PasquetIsabelle Pasquet is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Bouches-du-Rhône department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Jack RaliteJack RaliteJack Ralite is a French politician. He was elected in 1973 to the Seine-Saint-Denis constituency for the French Communist Party. In 1981 he became Minister for Health and subsequently Minister for Employment . In 1984 he became Mayor of Aubervilliers, a post he retained until 2003.- References :...
, Ivan RenarIvan RenarIvan Renar is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Nord department. He is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Mireille SchurchMireille SchurchMireille Schurch is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Allier department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group .-Biography:...
, Odette TerradeOdette TerradeOdette Terrade is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Val-de-Marne department. She is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Bernard VeraBernard VeraBernard Vera is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Essonne department. He is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
, Jean-François VoguetJean-François VoguetJean-François Voguet is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Val-de-Marne department. He is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group.-References:*...
(CRC-SPGCommunist, Republican, Citizen, and Senators of the Left Party GroupThe Communist, Republican, Citizen, and Senators of the Left Party Group is a French parliamentary group, one of six in the French Senate. It is the successor to the Communist Group. In November 2008, Jean-Luc Mélenchon left the Socialist Party and formed the Left Party...
Group) - MEPs: Patrick Le HyaricPatrick Le HyaricPatrick Le Hyaric is a French journalist, politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the Île-de-France constituency...
, Jacky HéninJacky HeninJacky Hénin is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the north-west of France. He is a member of the French Communist Party, which is part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade.He is also...
, Élie HoarauÉlie HoarauÉlie Hoarau is a French politician and member of the Communist Party of Réunion. He is the husband of Senator Gélita Hoarau....
(PCRCommunist Party of RéunionThe Communist Party of Réunion is a Communist political party in the French overseas department of Réunion . The party has one seat in the French National Assembly.-History:...
), Marie-Christine VergiatMarie-Christine VergiatMarie-Christine Vergiat is a community organizations' activist and a French politician. As of June 2009, she is a Member of the European Parliament representing the Left Front. She is the companion of Jean-Pierre Dubois, president of the French Human Rights League, with whom she has a son...
(DVGMiscellaneous LeftMiscellaneous Left in France refers to left-wing candidates that are not member of any large party. They either include small left-wing parties or dissidents expelled from their parties for running against their party's candidate. Numerous DVG candidates are elected at a local level, and a smaller...
) (EUL-NGLEuropean United Left–Nordic Green LeftEuropean United Left/Nordic Green Left is a left-wing political group with seats in the European Parliament since 1995.-Position:According to its 1994 constituent declaration, the group is opposed to the present European political structure, but committed to integration...
Group)
The PCF has two Presidents of the General Council
President of the general council
In France, the President of the General Council is the locally-elected head of the General Council, the assembly governing a departments in France. The position is elected by the general councillors from among their number. If there is a tie, the senior Councillor is elected.The President of the...
– the Val-de-Marne
Val-de-Marne
Val-de-Marne is a French department, named after the Marne River, located in the Île-de-France region. The department is situated to the southeast of the city of Paris.- Geography :...
and Allier
Allier
Allier is a department in central France named after the river Allier.- History :Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais.In 1940, the government of Marshal...
. It lost Seine-Saint-Denis
Seine-Saint-Denis
- Culture :A number of hip hop artists come from the Seine-Saint-Denis, including one of the first major hip-hop groups in France, NTM, as well as Lord Kossity, or more recent acts such as Tandem or Sefyu.- Miscellaneous topics :...
in 2008 to the PS. In addition, it has numerous general councillors in most French departments and it is a member of the ruling departmental majority in a number of them. In addition, it has numerous regional councillors in most French regions.
Popular support and electoral record
Currently, the PCF retains some strength in suburban Paris, in the Nord section of the old coal mining area in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the industrial harbours of Le HavreLe Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
and Dieppe
Dieppe, Seine-Maritime
Dieppe is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in France. In 1999, the population of the whole Dieppe urban area was 81,419.A port on the English Channel, famous for its scallops, and with a regular ferry service from the Gare Maritime to Newhaven in England, Dieppe also has a popular pebbled...
, in some departments of central France, such as Allier
Allier
Allier is a department in central France named after the river Allier.- History :Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais.In 1940, the government of Marshal...
and Cher (where a form of sharecropping
Sharecropping
Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land . This should not be confused with a crop fixed rent contract, in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a fixed amount of...
existed, in addition to mining and small industrial-mining centres such as Commentry
Commentry
Commentry is a commune in the department of Allier in central France. It lies southwest of Moulins by the Orléans railway.-Population:-Economy:...
and Montceau-les-Mines
Montceau-les-Mines
Montceau-les-Mines is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.It is the second-largest commune of the metropolitan Communauté urbaine Creusot-Montceau, which lies southwest of the city of Dijon....
), the industrial mining region of northern Meurthe-et-Moselle
Meurthe-et-Moselle
Meurthe-et-Moselle is a department in the Lorraine region of France, named after the Meurthe and Moselle rivers.- History :Meurthe-et-Moselle was created in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War from the parts of the former departments of Moselle and Meurthe which remained French...
(Longwy
Longwy
Longwy is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.The inhabitants are known as Longoviciens.-Economy:Longwy has historically been an industrial center of the Lorraine iron mining district. The town is known for its artistic glazed pottery.-History:Longwy initially...
) and in some cities of the south, such as the industrial areas of Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
and nearby towns, as well as the working-class suburbs surrounding Paris (the ceinture rouge), Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France. It is located in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region, along the trunk road that connects Toulouse with Lyon...
, Alès
Alès
Alès is a commune in the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. It is one of the sub-prefectures of the department. It was formerly known as Alais.-Geography:...
and Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
. The PCF is also strong in the Cévennes
Cévennes
The Cévennes are a range of mountains in south-central France, covering parts of the départements of Gard, Lozère, Ardèche, and Haute-Loire.The word Cévennes comes from the Gaulish Cebenna, which was Latinized by Julius Caesar to Cevenna...
mountains, a left-wing rural anti-clerical stronghold with a strong Protestant
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
minority.
Communist traditions in the "Red Limousin
Limousin (région)
Limousin is one of the 27 regions of France. It is composed of three départements: Corrèze, Creuse and the Haute-Vienne.Situated largely in the Massif Central, as of January 1st 2008, the Limousin comprised 740,743 inhabitants on nearly 17 000 km2, making it the second least populated region of...
", the Pas-de-Calais, Paris proper, Nièvre
Nièvre
Nièvre is a department in the centre of France named after the Nièvre River.-History:Nièvre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
, Finistère, Alpes-Maritimes
Alpes-Maritimes
Alpes-Maritimes is a department in the extreme southeast corner of France.- History : was created by Octavian as a Roman military district in 14 BC, and became a full Roman province in the middle of the 1st century with its capital first at Cemenelum and subsequently at Embrun...
and Var have been hurt significantly by demographic changes (Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Finistère), a loss of voters to the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
due to good local Socialist infrastructure or strongmen (Nièvre, Pas-de-Calais, Paris) or due to the emergence of rival parties on the radical left (the Convention for a Progressive Alternative
Convention for a Progressive Alternative
The Convention for a Progressive Alternative is a French left-wing political party founded in 1994.It was founded by reformist Communists , Socialists, Trotskyists and others...
, a party of reformist communists, in the Limousin
Limousin (région)
Limousin is one of the 27 regions of France. It is composed of three départements: Corrèze, Creuse and the Haute-Vienne.Situated largely in the Massif Central, as of January 1st 2008, the Limousin comprised 740,743 inhabitants on nearly 17 000 km2, making it the second least populated region of...
and Val-de-Marne
Val-de-Marne
Val-de-Marne is a French department, named after the Marne River, located in the Île-de-France region. The department is situated to the southeast of the city of Paris.- Geography :...
).
There exists isolated Communist bases in the rural anti-clerical areas of southwestern Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France.-History:Côtes-du-Nord was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Brittany. Its name was changed in 1990 to...
and northwestern Morbihan
Morbihan
Morbihan is a department in Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan , the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline.-History:...
; in the industrial areas of Le Mans
Le Mans
Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...
; in the shipbuilding cities of Saint-Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire , is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.The town has a major harbour, on the right bank of the Loire River estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. The town is at the south of the second-largest swamp in France, called "la Brière"...
, La Seyne-sur-Mer
La Seyne-sur-Mer
La Seyne-sur-Mer, or La Seyne is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is part of the agglomeration of Toulon, and is situated adjacent to the west of this city.-Economy:...
(there are no more ships built in La Seyne); and in isolated industrial centres built along the old Paris-Lyon railway (The urban core of Romilly-sur-Seine
Romilly-sur-Seine
Romilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France.-Population:-Twin towns:Romilly-sur-Seine is twinned with: Milford Haven, United Kingdom Gotha, Germany Lüdenscheid, Germany Medicina, Italy Uman, Ukraine-References:*...
, Aube has elected a Communist general councillor since 1958).
Presidential
| Election year | Candidate | # of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | # of 2nd round votes | % of 2nd round vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 French presidential election, 1969 The 1969 French presidential election took place on 1 June and 15 June 1969. It occurred due to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969. Indeed, De Gaulle had decided to consult the voters by referendum about regionalisation and the reform of the Senate, and he had announced... |
Jacques Duclos Jacques Duclos Jacques Duclos was a French Communist politician who played a key role in French politics from 1926, when he entered the French National Assembly after defeating Paul Reynaud, until 1969, when he won a substantial portion of the vote in the presidential elections.During World War I, Duclos fought... |
4,808,285 | 21.27% | — | — |
| 1981 French presidential election, 1981 The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic.... |
Georges Marchais Georges Marchais Georges René Louis Marchais was the head of the French Communist Party from 1972 to 1994, and a candidate in the French presidential elections of 1981 - in which he managed to garner only 15.34% of the vote, which was considered at the time a major setback for the party.-Early life:Born into a... |
4,456,922 | 15.35% | — | — |
| 1988 French presidential election, 1988 Presidential elections were held in France on 24 April and 8 May 1988.In 1981, the Socialist Party leader, François Mitterrand, was elected President of France and the Left won the legislative election. However, in 1986, the Right regained a parliamentary majority. President Mitterrand was forced... |
André Lajoinie André Lajoinie André Lajoinie is a French politician, and a member of the French Communist Party .He was a member of the French National Assembly for Allier from 1978 to 1993, then from 1997 to 2002, and was president of the Communist group in the Assembly from 1981 to 1993.A close collaborator of party leader... |
2,056,261 | 6.76% | — | — |
| 1995 French presidential election, 1995 Presidential elections took place in France on 23 April and 7 May 1995, to elect the fifth president of the Fifth Republic.The incumbent Socialist president, François Mitterrand, did not stand for a third term. He was 78, had cancer, and his party had lost the previous legislative election in a... |
Robert Hue Robert Hue Robert Hue, in full Robert Georges Auguste Hue , is a French politician who was National Secretary of the French Communist Party from 1994 to 2001 and President of the PCF from 2001 to 2002... |
2,638,936 | 8.66% | — | — |
| 2002 French presidential election, 2002 The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in... |
Robert Hue Robert Hue Robert Hue, in full Robert Georges Auguste Hue , is a French politician who was National Secretary of the French Communist Party from 1994 to 2001 and President of the PCF from 2001 to 2002... |
960,480 | 3.37% | — | — |
| 2007 French presidential election, 2007 The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy... |
Marie-George Buffet Marie-George Buffet Marie-George Buffet is a French politician. She was the head of the French Communist Party from 2001 to 2010. She joined the Party in 1969, and was the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports from June 4, 1997 to May 5, 2002. Ms... |
707,268 | 1.93% | — | — |
Legislative
| Election year | # of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | # of seats | % of seats | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | 885,993 | 9.82% | 26 | 4.48% | 581 |
| 1928 French legislative election, 1928 Legislative elections in France to elect the 14th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 22 and 29 April 1928.-Popular Vote:-Parliamentary Groups:... |
1,066,099 | 11.26% | 11 | 1.82% | 604 |
| 1932 | 796,630 | 8.32% | 10 | 1.65% | 607 |
| 1936 French legislative election, 1936 French legislative elections to elect the 16th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 26 April and 3 May 1936. This was the last legislature of the Third Republic and the last election before the Second World War. The number of candidates set a record, with 4,807 people vying for 618... |
1,502,404 | 15.26% | 72 | 11.80% | 610 |
| 1945 French legislative election, 1945 A legislative election was held in France on 21 October 1945 to elect a constituent assembly to draft a constitution for a Fourth French Republic. 79.83% of voters participated. Women and soldiers were allowed to vote... |
5,024,174 | 26.23% | 159 | 27.13% | 586 |
| 1946 (Jun) French legislative election, June 1946 Legislative elections were held in France on 2 June 1946 to elect the second post-war National Assembly designated to prepare a new Constitution... |
5,145,325 | 25.98% | 153 | 26.11% | 586 |
| 1946 (Nov) French legislative election, November 1946 Legislative election was held in France on 10 November 1946 to elect the first National Assembly of the Fourth Republic. The electoral system used was proportional representation.... |
5,430,593 | 28.26% | 182 | 29.03% | 627 |
| 1951 French legislative election, 1951 Legislative elections were held in France on 17 June 1951 to elect the second National Assembly of the Fourth Republic.After the Second World War, the three parties which took a major part in the French Resistance to the German occupation dominated the political scene and government: the French... |
4,939,380 | 26.27% | 103 | 16.48% | 625 |
| 1956 | 5,514,403 | 23.56% | 150 | 25.21% | 595 |
| 1958 French legislative election, 1958 - National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:... |
3,882,204 | 18.90% | 10 | 1.83% | 546 |
| 1962 French legislative election, 1962 - National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:... |
4,003,553 | 20.84% | 41 | 8.82% | 465 |
| 1967 French legislative election, 1967 French legislative elections took place on 5 and 12 March 1967 to elect the 3rd National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.In December 1965, Charles de Gaulle was re-elected President of France in the first Presidential election by universal suffrage. However, contrary to predictions, there had been a... |
5,039,032 | 22.51% | 73 | 14.99% | 487 |
| 1968 French legislative election, 1968 - National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:... |
4,434,832 | 20.02% | 34 | 6.98% | 487 |
| 1973 French legislative election, 1973 French legislative elections took place on 4 and 11 March 1973 to elect the 5th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.In order to end the May 1968 crisis, President Charles de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and his party, the Gaullist Party Union of Democrats for the Republic , obtained... |
5,085,108 | 21.39% | 73 | 14.96% | 488 |
| 1978 French legislative election, 1978 The French legislative elections took place on 12 March and 19 March 1978 to elect the 6th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 2 April 1974 President Georges Pompidou died. The non-Gaullist center-right leader Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected to succeed him... |
5,870,402 | 20.55% | 86 | 17.62% | 488 |
| 1981 French legislative election, 1981 French legislative elections took place on 14 June and 21 June 1981 to elect the 7th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 10 May 1981 François Mitterrand was elected President of France. He became the first Socialist to win this post under universal suffrage... |
4,065,540 | 16.17% | 44 | 8.96% | 491 |
| 1986 French legislative election, 1986 The French legislative elections took place on 16 March 1986 to elect the 8th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Contrary to other legislative elections of the Fifth Republic, the electoral system used was that of Party-list proportional representation.Since the 1981 election of François... |
2,739,225 | 9.78% | 35 | 6.65% | 573 |
| 1988 French legislative election, 1988 French legislative elections took place on 5 June and 12 June 1988 to elect the 9th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, one month after the re-election of François Mitterrand as President of France.... |
2,765,761 | 11.32% | 27 | 4.70% | 575 |
| 1993 French legislative election, 1993 French legislative elections took place on 21 and 28 March 1993 to elect the 10th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.Since 1988, President François Mitterrand and his Socialist cabinets had relied on a relative parliamentary majority. Without the support of the Communists, Prime minister... |
2,331,339 | 9.30% | 24 | 4.16% | 577 |
| 1997 French legislative election, 1997 French legislative election took place on 25 May and 1 June 1997 to elect the 11th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. It was the consequence of President Jacques Chirac's decision to call the legislative election one year before the deadline.... |
2,523,405 | 9.92% | 35 | 6.07% | 577 |
| 2002 French legislative election, 2002 -12th Assembly by Parliamentary Group:... |
1,216,178 | 4.82% | 21 | 3.64% | 577 |
| 2007 French legislative election, 2007 The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, including France's overseas possessions... |
1,115,663 | 4.29% | 15 | 2.60% | 577 |
European Parliament
| Election year | Number of votes | % of overall vote | # of seats won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 European Parliament election, 1979 (France) In 1979 the first direct elections to the European Parliament were held in France. Four parties were able to win seats: the centre right Union for French Democracy the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party. 61.7% of the French population turned out on... |
4,153,710 | 20.52% | 19 |
| 1984 European Parliament election, 1984 (France) In 1984 the second direct elections to the European Parliament were held in France. Four parties were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party, and the Front National... |
2,261,312 | 11.21% | 10 |
| 1989 European Parliament election, 1989 (France) On 15 June 1989 the third direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Six lists were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, an alliance of the Socialist Party and the PRG, the French Communist... |
1,401,171 | 7.72% | 7 |
| 1994 European Parliament election, 1994 (France) On 12 June 1994 the fourth direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Six lists were able to win seats: an alliance of the centre-right Union for French Democracy and the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the Socialist Party, the Left Radical Party, the French Communist... |
1,342,222 | 6.89% | 7 |
| 1999 European Parliament election, 1999 (France) On 13 June 1999 the fifth direct elections to the European Parliament were held in the France. Once again, abstention was very high for this type of election- only 47% of eligible voters voted... |
1,196,310 | 6.78% | 6 |
| 2004 European Parliament election, 2004 (France) Elections to the European Parliament were held in France on 13 June 2004. The opposition Socialist Party made substantial gains, although this was mainly at the expense of minor parties... |
1,009,976 | 5.88% | 2 |
| 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (France) European elections to elect 72 French Members of the European Parliament were held on Sunday 7 June 2009.Due to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Union in 2007, the number of seats allocated to France was revised from 78 seats to 72 seats, a loss of 6 seats... |
1,115,021 | 6.48% | 3 |
Publications
The PCF publishes the following:- Communistes (Communists)
- Info Hebdo (Weekly News)
- Economie et Politique (Economics and Politics)
Traditionally, it was also the owner of the French daily L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
(Humanity), founded by Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
.
Although the newspaper is now independent, it remains close to the PCF.
The paper is sustained by the annual Fête de L'Humanité festival, held in La Courneuve
La Courneuve
La Courneuve is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-History:The history of La Courneuve begins as the rest of the region with the invasion of European tribes and the eventual conquering of the area by the Romans. During the Middle Ages,...
, a working class suburb of Paris. This event remains the biggest festival in France with people during a three days festival.
During the 1970s, the PCF registered success with the children's magazine it founded, Pif gadget
Pif gadget
Pif Gadget was a French comic magazine for children that ran from 1969 to 1993 and 2004 to 2009. Its audience peaked in the early 1970s.-History:Created as an outlet of the French Communist Party, it was initially entitled Le Jeune Patriote...
.
See also
- List of foreign delegations at 24th PCF Congress (1982)
- Place du Colonel FabienPlace du Colonel FabienBefore the liberation of Paris, the square was called the Place du Combat and was renamed in honour of the French communist resistance hero, Pierre Georges, whose nom-de-guerre was Colonel Fabien....
- Louis AlthusserLouis AlthusserLouis Pierre Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy....
's Reading CapitalReading CapitalReading Capital is a 1965 work of Marxist philosophy and theory. The book collects essays developed by Louis Althusser and his students in a seminar on Karl Marx's Das Kapital which took place earlier in 1965...
(1965) - MRAP anti-racist NGO, created in 1941