Death of André Lajoinie, at 94: the activist and former leader of the French Communist Party has died

The former leader of the French Communist Party and candidate in the 1988 presidential election, André Lajoinie, has died at the age of 94, the current national secretary of the PCF Fabien Roussel announced Tuesday, on X.

“Immense sadness at the announcement of the death of André Lajoinie (…) We are losing a man of great humanity” Fabien Roussel paid tribute to him on the social network, saluting “his fights for the working classes, for his territory, for France”.

Born on December 26, 1929, André Lajoinie, son of Corrèze peasants, embodied for more than half a century the man of the apparatus devoted to his party.

Child of a poor farming family, forced to abandon school after his school certificate to help in the fields, André Lajoinie defended “a predominantly family-based agriculture, with structures on a human scale”.

“The son of farmers, he had a love of people in his heart. Member of Parliament, leader of the PCF, André was a fierce defender of the working class“, wrote party spokesperson Ian Brossat on X.

“A committed figure of the left”

Mr. Lajoinie was “a figure of the committed left, that of activists who give everything for what they believe in. Respectful thoughts for his family and his comrades”added PS deputy Emmanuel Grégoire. André Lajoinie joined the Jeunesses Communistes (JC) following the war, in 1946.

A pure and hardline activist, seriously injured in 1958 during a demonstration against the Algerian war, he followed a very classic path: central party school (1964), Moscow executive school (1967), entry into the Committee central in 1972 and to the Political Bureau in 1976.

Consecration arrived in 1982, with his entry into the party secretariat, then headed by Georges Marchais. In the 1988 presidential election, André Lajoinie led the difficult battle against president-candidate François Mitterrand and won a small 6.76%, which ensured his party would be reimbursed for campaign expenses.

This specialist in agricultural issues was then a deputy for Allier from 1978 to 1993, then re-elected in 1997. He threw in the towel in 2002, at the age of 72, and decided not to run again.