ReportageThis commune of Pas-de-Calais is one of the last communist bastions of a northern region engulfed by the far right. The breakthrough in the polls of the PCF presidential candidate, even clouded by accusations of fictitious employment, invigorates those who, on the spot, have never disarmed.
In the market, locals are predicting a storm. This Thursday, February 17 in the morning, in the center of Avion, in Pas-de-Calais, traders protect their stalls from gusts. “It’s the wind of hope, that! » jokes the communist militant Jean Létoquart, 46, rectangular glasses and a ring in his ear. The anesthetist nurse at the Lens hospital center and first deputy mayor of Avion, Jean-Marc Tellier (PCF), collects a package of leaflets from his presidential candidate, Fabien Roussel. Employment, health, education, gender equality and reindustrialization in France are spread over several colorful pages.
Between a few greengrocers, a butcher specializing in Polish charcuterie and a bedding stand, the forty-year-old seems delighted: “If the atmosphere is sad, we do not militate for long. » Despite the cold, he spends time checking in on each other: how is Mireille Wicke, whose nonagenarian husband is in hospital after a bad fall? And Daniel Szymanski, soon to be 82, in a red down jacket? With this former works supervisor in the construction industry, the municipal councilor regrets the disappearance of the local pneumology service in this mining basin, where many former workers suffer from silicosis. All promise to come to the meeting of Fabien Roussel, organized on February 24. In this town of 18,000 inhabitants, a thousand people are expected for the event. “It’s exhilarating”, says the activist.
Electoral dynamics
Jean Létoquart is delighted with this start to the campaign: among the many left-wing candidates in the presidential election, Fabien Roussel is making a small breakthrough with voting intentions that are close to 5%, according to several polling institutes. A clear increase since mid-January, when it did not exceed 2%. The PCF had not experienced such electoral dynamics for years. The last communist candidate for a presidential election, Marie-Georges Buffet, in 2007, gathered only 1.93% of the vote. Then, in 2012 and 2017, the Communist Party allied itself with La France insoumise (LFI) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The mayor of Avion, Jean-Marc Tellier, 52, sees in this candidacy the symbol of a “found pride” for his political camp. A feeling barely started by the revelations of the news site Mediapart, on February 20, according to which the communist candidate would have benefited from a job as a fictitious parliamentary assistant with the deputy for the North Jean-Jacques Candelier, from 2009 to 2014. Fabien Roussel denied on Europe 1, the next day, any post ” Phantom “. Jean Létoquart is not worried: “Here, we saw him pacing the field with his deputy”, he assures.
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