“There are strong measures to take to defend the purchasing power of the French,” says Fabien Roussel

Faced with rising fuel and energy prices and a “recession budget,” “if we don't mobilize, the government won't move,” Fabien Roussel, the communist candidate for the presidential election, declared on Saturday.

“The French are afraid, they are worried, they are right (...). This is why we must be very numerous, farmers, employees, high school students, we must all come together to be united to influence the government's choices,” he added, on the sidelines of a gathering of a few hundred people in Valenciennes.

“While there are strong measures to be taken to defend the purchasing power of the French (...), the government is doing quite the opposite” with its 2027 budget project providing for 54 billion euros in savings, the PCF leader further estimated.

“It’s a recession budget, it’s a budget which will paralyze the economy, which will paralyze businesses, and above all kill consumption,” he insisted.

“Let all French people mobilize”

A few minutes earlier, his speech and those of representatives of the Young Communists and a CGT trade unionist in front of the demonstrators were disrupted by a few yellow vests who shouted “Jordan Bardella” and “National Front”.

“For me, what is important is that all French people, whatever their opinions (political, Editor's note), are mobilized,” insisted Fabien Roussel.

“There are inevitably among the people demonstrating today, who are angry, people who want to vote for the extreme right.”

However, the National Rally “does not call for demonstrations, it is even against these mobilizations”, he noted.

“The people who demonstrate today and who occupy the roundabouts must realize the reality of the support of political forces,” he finally concluded.