Head of the Communist Party list, the young Léon Deffontaines (28 years old), loyal to Fabien Roussel, will be this Friday, May 10 in Bordeaux to meet trade unionists and community stakeholders.
You have been in the campaign for several months. How do you judge this European debate?
Everything is done to avoid subjects that primarily concern the daily lives of French people: employment, the cost of living, purchasing power. We should therefore not be surprised by the growing disenchantment of our fellow citizens with these European elections. I understand it. Today’s Europe…
Head of the Communist Party list, the young Léon Deffontaines (28 years old), loyal to Fabien Roussel, will be this Friday, May 10 in Bordeaux to meet trade unionists and community stakeholders.
You have been in the campaign for several months. How do you judge this European debate?
Everything is done to avoid subjects that primarily concern the daily lives of French people: employment, the cost of living, purchasing power. We should therefore not be surprised by the growing disenchantment of our fellow citizens with these European elections. I understand it. Today’s Europe is precisely that of rising electricity prices, deindustrialization and unemployment, the decline in public services, the closure of factories and schools. These are the subjects that the French talk to me about when I go door to door or when I go to the markets. Not lunar topics from certain left-wing lists. The only party that raises the social question, apart from us, is unfortunately the RN, while this party, inactive in the European Parliament and the National Assembly, never votes in favor of the workers it claims to defend. I want to face Jordan Bardella on this ground, to open the eyes of his voters.
Do you also blame all our problems on Europe?
This Europe is that of Emmanuel Macron, so there are no contradictions between what is decided in Brussels and what applies in Paris. If Bruno Le Maire wants to cut the budget, it is to respect this 3% rule imposed by Europe and which prevents us from carrying out a major policy of reindustrialization, railway and environmental projects. This Europe is that of Macron, and Glucksmann is the same. When Emmanuel Macron says that Europe can die, I respond that his Europe must die because it is leading us straight into the wall. We need another Europe which is a lever for cooperation and which benefits the world of work.
Europe has committed hundreds of billions against the Covid epidemic.
And it was the right decision. The wrong decision is to check out. The epidemic has above all demonstrated how, because of neoliberal policies, hospitals lack beds and we are incapable of producing medicines in Europe. The 3% rule is leading us into recession and it will be worse than 2008.
Is Europe doing its job to help Ukraine?
We have never procrastinated on the support that should be given to Ukraine. It is necessary to help the Ukrainians hold the front because it is from a position of strength that we can best negotiate. If, in a month, the Russians drive straight towards kyiv, it will be over, Putin will never come to the negotiating table. However, this war can only end with a diplomatic outcome. On the other hand, we maintain our red line, namely no French soldiers on Ukrainian soil. There is no question of becoming co-belligerents. This was Emmanuel Macron’s initial line, he is in the process of wanting to free himself from it.
Why are you talking about lunar debates on the left?
But look how the left is raging about the Palestinian question! I am not claiming that Ukraine or Palestine should be absent from the European campaign, on the contrary, but, I repeat, the French people I meet talk to me about purchasing power, employment, public services. The left is above ground. If we do not get our arms around the social question, if we do not become the labor left again, the one that Fabien Roussel defended in the presidential election, we open the door to abstention and the National Rally. This should not be surprising.
This is what François Ruffin says.
Absolutely. François Ruffin is first of all my deputy, in the 1D Somme constituency. I think he is uncomfortable with the current demands of the Insoumis and that he is more in line with my desire to rebuild a social and popular left.
The polls place you far behind the three other left-wing lists. What’s the point of voting communist?
We are the only list to want to create a rally on the left, the only list to demand that Europe produce more according to environmental criteria, to want to bring production and consumption closer together, to make the link between energy, industry and the environment. The only list that is truly ecological and social is the one that I lead.
