A first step towards autonomy? The former boss of the Young Communists Léon Deffontaines has been appointed leader of the Communist Party (PCF) for the European elections of 2024, he announced on Saturday July 1.
Aged 27, he is one of the lieutenants of the national secretary, Fabien Roussel, for whom he was the spokesman in the presidential election of 2022.
“I thank the PCF National Council for having appointed me leader for the European elections”, he declared on Twitter, saying he was “determined to go to the reconquest of the popular electorate”.
Mr. Deffontaines will have the difficult mission of improving the score of the Communists, who did not reach 3% in the European elections of 2019 and the presidential election in 2022.
“Creating debate”
The title of “leader”, endorsed by the national council of the party, leaves room for possible alliances, but this scenario has become unlikely in recent weeks, not only because the ecologists, who have made the highest score in 2019 on the left, are resolved to leave alone, but also because Fabien Roussel wishes to relaunch the Communist Party with an anti-Melenchonist line.
Léon Deffontaines will focus his campaign on the reorientation of Europe towards the social and the fight against the far right, in particular the probable head of the list of the National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella, he declared to the France Media Agency.
Born in Amiens, from a working-class neighborhood but a member of a large family of farmers, he has been an activist since high school. He joined the Young Communists at the age of 17, became their federal secretary in the Somme in 2016 before becoming secretary general at the national level in 2019.
“We are going to create debate on a lot of subjects,” he promised, referring to the iconoclastic tone of Fabien Roussel, from whom he intends to draw inspiration for his campaign.