Fabien Roussel (; born 16 April 1969) is a French politician who has served as national secretary of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

(PCF) since 2018. He was elected to represent the 20th constituency of the Nord department in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. Roussel was a candidate in the 2022 presidential election in which he placed eighth in the first round.

Early life

From a family of activists, Fabien Roussel is the son of Daniel Roussel, former journalist at ''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

''. After he finished high school in

Champigny-sur-Marne Champigny-sur-Marne (, literally ''Champigny on Marne'') is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Name Champigny-sur-Marne was originally called simply Champigny. The name Champigny ul ...

, in the Paris region, he graduated from the Journalists Development Centre (CPJ). He began his career as an image reporter at the

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

regional branch of television channel

France 3 France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info. It is made up of a network of regional television services providing ...

. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was a Spanish refugee who died after being interned in the Vernet camp.

Early political career

During his high school years, Fabien Roussel engaged in the Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France (MJCF) to denounce the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and demanded the release of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

. He also participated in major demonstrations against the Monory law and Devaquet bill, related respectively to employee shareholding and university organisation. From 1997, he was advisor in charge of communication for Communist Michelle Demessine, then Secretary of State for Tourism under Prime Minister

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...

. He then worked for Jean-Jacques Candelier and

Alain Bocquet Alain Bocquet (born 6 May 1946) is a French politician. A member of the French Communist Party (PCF), he was a Deputy from the Nord department of France between 1978 and 2017 and president of the communist parliamentary group from 1993 to ...

Political career

, Roussel was elected to succeed Bocquet as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the 20th constituency of Nord as a member of the

. He became party leader in 2018. On 9 May 2021, Roussel won the Communist nomination for the 2022 presidential election.

Political positions

Roussel takes progressive positions on socioeconomic issues and favours raising the

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

to 1,500 euros a month post-tax, as well as reducing the

workweek The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of t ...

to 32 hours and lowering the retirement age to 60. Unlike many French leftists, he is strongly supportive of

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

and has expressed a positive view of

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

Personal life

Roussel lives with his partner Dorothée, a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

of category C.

References

External links

Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roussel, Fabien 1969 births Living people French people of Spanish descent 20th-century French journalists 21st-century French politicians Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic French Communist Party politicians French male journalists People from Béthune Politicians from Hauts-de-France Candidates in the 2022 French presidential election