A small series comes to an end. After being invited to the first two debates of the main leaders of the list in the European elections, on March 14 and April 10, Léon Deffontaines was ultimately not invited to the third game, organized by RTL, Le Figaro, M6 and Paris Première, Sunday May 5. “[Il] regrets their decision to base themselves solely on polls, when the PCF is based on 14 deputies, 16 senators, more than 1,000 municipal councilors, and its list has an outgoing MEP (Emmanuel Maurel, GRS)”, has everything follows his entourage, in a loop intended for journalists, one very close to the candidate specifies: “The channel based itself on the results of Rolling Ifop to decide on the invitations: 5% was needed to participate in the debate.” youngest of the competition, foal of Fabien Roussel, is he no longer considered a “big candidate” by the channels? His team is strangled “He is one of the most important candidates! He is in the wheel of Roussel, the fourth favorite political figure of the French…” We rub our eyes: Léon Deffontaines only fluctuates between 2.5 and 3% of voting intentions! But this non-invitation… An old back to reality, all the same.
The head of the “PCF – United Left” list can still be reassured. It must be said that five years ago, Ian Brossat, current senator from Paris, had gone out of his way to get a little seat in the debates planned for the European elections. One evening in April 2019, he even brought a few chairs – and dozens of activists – in front of the CNews premises, which refused to send him an invitation card. “It seems that the problem is that you lack chairs; we have chairs to lend you” the head of the communist list quipped. Vincent Bolloré’s channel had not moved one iota, and the PCF had contented itself with a single debate on France 2, granted following tough negotiations. And another on the same channel, broadcast in the second part of the evening and dedicated to very young candidates. Not really up to par with the overflowing communist ambitions.
Between now and June 9, the former national secretary of the Young Communists should, this time, participate in six of the seven debates. A lot can happen in five years! The PCF now has a parliamentary group in each chamber, and Fabien Roussel brought bright colors to the red house during the previous presidential election, a first conducted alone since 2007. “In 2019, the media said that we had difficulty differentiating our candidacy from the others on the left, smiles the head of the list. But today, Fabien. [Roussel] clarified our political niche.” Debate on meat, cheese and wine with the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau; remote confrontation with the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon…: in two years, the PCF has managed to leave its mark, hammering home his differences in style and substance with the rest of the left, however, behind the scenes, Léon Deffontaines’ advisors have been regularly reminding the channels of the regulator’s recommendations. It was difficult for three debates, but we didn’t give up,” reports one of them. You have to imagine a happy communist.
The Glucksmann obsession
“I think these first two debates legitimized me,” says the 28-year-old first-time candidate. “The main challenge now is my lack of notoriety,” adds the man who those around him like to present as an “anti-Bardella”. To challenge the extreme right on the “social question”, the communist therefore worked, through the two confrontations, to outline his strange strategy. Rule number 1 of the Deffontaines method: to be heard on the left, you have to find your left. “We need less Europe!”, here is the baby Roussel initiating each of his debates by hammering home his opposition to the constitutional treaty of 2005, a structural disagreement keeping him away from the federalist camp. Rule number 2: to plow your furrow, you must drum up your structural differences with the rest of the left. “The anti-nuclear people are the environmentalists of the past,” he asserts, thumbing his nose at the ecologist Marie Toussaint; “Your party closed Fessenheim,” he said this time to Raphaël Glucksmann.
Rule number 3: find and attack, on the left, your antagonist even if it means going beyond the limits of courtesy – sometimes even decency. “At the time, Mr. Glucksmann supported the idea that it was necessary to intervene in Iraq… He was your father, at the time for me”; “If tomorrow we expand to Ukraine, Moldova, or Georgia so dear to Mr. Glucksmann, then we will have a headlong rush for our industry”, in a barely veiled reference to the previous career of the candidate Place Publique – object multiple accusations from his opponents – as a consultant to the former Georgian president. A successful strategy? A pout, in the team of the former essayist: “Deffontaines, that’s not really our subject.”
Sitting at the central café on Place du Colonel Fabien, the tall, smiling man with a deep, strong voice takes the opportunity to complete his distribution of cleats on the port side. The big screen enthusiast is still moved by his last cinema session, the film No waves by Teddy Lussi-Modeste, the story of a college professor wrongly accused of harassment by one of his students. “When I hear Danielle Simonnet on the Maurice Ravel affair [la députée LFI a relayé la thèse de la jeune fille affirmant que le proviseur du lycée, qui lui avait demandé de retirer son voile, l’avait frappée], I tell myself that there is a problem. When the left no longer defends the 2004 law, there is a problem.” The communist specifies, in case we have forgotten: “I still want Toussaint, Aubry etc. make more than 5%. My main adversary is the right and the extreme right!” But an hour later, less ready to denounce the right, the person concerned talks about the pitfalls of the left: the interview is coming to an end. A problem diary.
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