View source for French Communist Party

{{Short description|French political party}}
{{redirect|SFIC|Shanghai Fortune Industrial Company|Fosun Pharma}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox political party
| name             = French Communist Party
| native_name      = Parti communiste français
| native_name_lang = fr
| logo             = Logo – Parti communiste français (2018).svg
| colorcode        = {{Political party data|color}}
| abbreviation     = PCF
| leader1_title    = National Secretary
| leader1_name     = [[Fabien Roussel]]
| leader2_title    = Spokespersons
| leader2_name     = {{ubli|[[Cécile Cukierman]]||[[Ian Brossat]]}}
| leader3_title    = Founders
| leader3_name     = {{ubli|[[Ludovic-Oscar Frossard]]|[[Fernand Loriot]]|[[Boris Souvarine]]|[[Marcel Cachin]]|[[Ho Chi Minh]]}}
| founded          = {{start date and age|1920|12|30|df=y}}
| split            = [[French Section of the Workers' International]]
| headquarters     = [[Headquarters of the French Communist Party]],<br /> 2, [[place du Colonel Fabien]] – 75019 [[Paris]]
| student_wing     = [[Union of Communist Students]]
| youth_wing       = ''[[Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France]]''
| membership_year  = 2023
| membership       = {{decrease}} 42,237<ref>{{cite tweet|user=PCF|number=1619747576441638912|title=Congrès du PCF: le texte d'orientation du Conseil national porté par @Fabien_Roussel est adopté à 81,92% à l'issue du vote des communistes.}}</ref>
| ideology         = {{ubli|class=nowrap|
| [[Communism]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parties-and-elections.eu/france.html|title=France|last=Nordsieck|first=Wolfram|date=2017|website=Parties and Elections in Europe}}</ref>
| [[Soft Euroscepticism]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://europeelects.eu/france/|title=EuropeElects|website=Parties and Elections in Europe}}, citing data from [https://chesdata.shinyapps.io/Shiny-CHES/ Chapel Hill Expert Survey]</ref><ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FsdcEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22communist+party%22+france+%22euroskeptic%22&pg=PA131 | title = Referendums and Ethnic Conflict | last = Qvortrup | first = Matt | publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press | year = 2022 | edition = 2nd | isbn = 9780812298581 | page = 131 | quote = Further, France is a country with a persistent Euroskeptic party with coalition potential, namely the French Communist Party.}}</ref>}} '''Historical:'''<br>[[Marxism–Leninism]] (Until 1979)<ref name=Hoxha >{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/euroco/env2-1.htm | title = Enver Hoxha: 'Eurocommunism' is Anti-Communism - pt. 1 | quote = The French revisionist leaders proposed to their 23rd Congress, held in May 1979, that they should give up referring to Marxism-Leninism in the documents of their party and use the term "scientific socialism" instead.}}</ref><br>[[Eurocommunism]] (From 1970s)<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-16581-0_4 | doi=10.1007/978-1-349-16581-0_4 | chapter=Eurocommunism and the French Communist Party | title=In Search of Eurocommunism | date=1981 | last1=Elleinstein | first1=Jean | pages=66–79 | isbn=978-0-333-27594-8 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Escalona |first1=Fabien |last2=Keith |first2=Daniel |last3=March |first3=Luke |date=2023-04-17 |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Left Parties in Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wTu6EAAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] |page=98, 204 |isbn=978-1137562647 |quote==In the 1970s, it became a Eurocommunist party, alongside the PCI, the PCF and the PCE. [...] and joined the Eurocommunist gatherings with the Italian and Spanish communist parties. |access-date=2025-08-15}}</ref>
| newspaper        = ''[[L'Humanité]]''
| position         = [[Left-wing politics|Left-wing]]<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Power of Sex and Incumbency: A Longitudinal Study of Electoral Performance in France|last=Murray|first=Rainbow|journal=Party Politics |doi=10.1177/1354068807088122|date=2008|volume=14 |issue=5 |page=551|publisher=SAGE|s2cid=144957277}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Social Change in Modern France: Towards a Cultural Anthropology of the Fifth Republic|date=1991|last1=Mendras|first1=Henri|last2=Cole|first2=Alistair|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=76|isbn=052139998X}}</ref><br>'''Historical:'''<br>[[Far-left politics|Far-left]]<ref>Cosseron, Serge (ed.). ''Le dictionnaire de l'extrême gauche'' (en:"Dictionary of the far-left"), Paris, 2007. p. 20. [[Éditions Larousse|Larousse]]</ref>
| european         = [[Party of the European Left]]
| international    = {{ubli|[[International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties|IMCWP]]|[[Cominform]] (1947–1956)|[[Comintern]] (1920—1943)}}
| national         = {{ubli|[[New Popular Front]]<br>(since 2024)|[[New Ecological and Social People's Union|NUPES]] (2022–2024)}}
| europarl         = 
| colors           = {{Color box|{{party color|French Communist Party}}|border=darkgray}} [[Red]]
| anthem           = "[[The Internationale]]"
<!-- Values obtained from Wikidata; to edit, see https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q192821 -->| seats1_title     = [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]]
| seats1           = {{Political party data|seat composition bar|ms-lower-house}}
| seats2_title     = [[Senate (France)|Senate]]
| seats2           = {{Political party data|seat composition bar|ms-upper-house}}
| seats3_title     = [[European Parliament]]
| seats3           = {{Political party data|seat composition bar|EP}}
| seats4_title     = [[Regional council (France)|Presidency of Regional Councils]]
| seats4           = {{Composition bar|0|17|hex={{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| seats5_title     = [[Departmental council (France)|Presidency of Departmental Councils]]
| seats5           = {{Composition bar|0|95|hex={{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| website          = {{Political party data|website}}
| country          = France
| footnotes        = Until 2008, the party was also member of [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]] (1936–1938), [[French Committee of National Liberation|CNFL]] (1940–1947) and the [[Plural Left]] (1997–2002)
| wing1            = Secteur international du PCF <ref>{{cite web | title=Les secteurs et commissions du PCF | website=Site Internet du PCF | date=1 August 2018 | url=https://www.pcf.fr/les_secteurs | language=fr | ref={{sfnref|Site Internet du PCF|2018}} | access-date=22 January 2025}} </ref>
| wing1_title      = Overseas wing
}}
{{Communist Parties}}
The '''French Communist Party''' ({{langx|fr|Parti communiste français}}, {{IPA|fr|paʁti kɔmynist fʁɑ̃sɛ|pron}}, '''PCF''') is a [[Communism|communist]] [[list of political parties in France|party in France]]. The PCF is a member of the [[Party of the European Left]].

The PCF was founded in 1920 by [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] members of the [[French Section of the Workers' International]] (SFIO) who supported the [[Bolsheviks]] in the 1917 [[Russian Revolution]]. It became a member of the [[Communist International]], and followed a Marxist-Leninist line under the leadership of [[Maurice Thorez]]. In response to the threat of [[fascism]], the PCF joined the socialist [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]] which won the 1936 election, but it did not participate in government. During [[World War II]], it was outlawed by the occupying Germans and became a key element of the [[French Resistance|Resistance]]. The PCF participated in the provisional government of the [[Liberation of France|Liberation]] from 1944 to 1947, but for the next 30 years was excluded from government despite consistently winning more than 20 percent of the vote in elections. It fell behind the [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party]] in the 1970s, though entered government early in [[François Mitterrand]]'s presidency (1981–1984) and participated in the [[Plural Left]] cabinet led by [[Lionel Jospin]] (1997–2002).

From 2009, the PCF was a leading member of the [[Left Front (France)|Left Front]] ({{lang|fr|Front de gauche}}), alongside [[Jean-Luc Mélenchon]]'s [[Left Party (France)|Left Party]] (PG). During the [[2017 French presidential election|2017 presidential election]], the PCF supported Mélenchon's candidature; however, tensions between the PCF and Mélenchon's movement, [[La France Insoumise]], have led the two parties to campaign separately for the general elections.<ref>[https://www.humanite.fr/legislatives-la-tension-monte-dun-cran-entre-pcf-et-france-insoumise-635670 "Législatives : la tension monte d’un cran entre PCF et France insoumise"],  ''L'Humanité''.</ref> Although its [[Elections in France|electoral]] support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a strong influence in French politics, especially at the local level. In 2012, the PCF claimed to have had 138,000 members, 70,000 of whom had paid their membership fees.<ref>[http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/politique/les-primaires-a-gauche-au-banc-d-essai_1003408.html "Les primaires à gauche au banc d'essai"] ''[[L'Express]]''.</ref>

==History==
{{Main|History of the French Communist Party}}

The French Communist Party (PCF) originated in 1920, when a majority of members resigned from the socialist [[French Section of the Workers' International]] (SFIO) party to set up the '''French Section of the Communist International''' (SFIC) with [[Ludovic-Oscar Frossard]] as its first secretary-general, with the involvement of [[Ho Chi Minh]] as one of the notable agitators participating in its creation.<ref>{{cite book|title=Communist Road to Power in Vietnam|author=William J. Duiker|publisher=Westview Press|year=1981|page=16}}</ref> The new SFIC defined itself as [[revolution]]ary and [[democratic centralism|democratic centralist]].  The 1920s saw a number of splits within the party over relations with other left-wing parties and over adherence to [[Comintern]]'s dictates. The party entered the [[Chamber of Deputies (France)|French parliament]], but also promoted strike action and opposed [[colonialism]], a position that was isolated in the French political landscape at the time. The Intercolonial Union, created in 1922, brought together activists from the French colonies around demands for political equality (the right to vote) and social equality ("equal pay for equal work"). The communists thus called for fraternization with the Moroccan insurgents during the [[Rif War]] (1925–1926) and to the evacuation of Morocco by the French army, they called for an end to the fighting and the independence of French Syria during the [[Great Syrian Revolt]] of 1925–1927, and denounced the festivities of the centenary of the colonization of Algeria, organizing in particular a campaign to boycott the [[Paris Colonial Exposition]] (1931).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wall |first=Irwin M. |date=1986 |title=Front Populaire, Front National: The Colonial Example |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27671647 |journal=International Labor and Working-Class History |volume=30 |issue=30 |pages=32–43 |doi=10.1017/S0147547900016823 |jstor=27671647 |issn=0147-5479|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The party was organized around leaders who were mostly from the working class, setting up training and promotion schemes and encouraging the presentation of working-class candidates in elections. The [[Maurice Thorez]], [[Jacques Duclos]] and [[Benoît Frachon]] team, who had been miners, metalworkers and pastry cooks respectively, had an exceptional longevity and led the French party for almost three decades. The railroad worker [[Pierre Semard]] had been secretary general of the party from 1924 to 1929.<ref name="monde-diplomatique.fr">{{Cite web|url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2020/12/MISCHI/62584|title=Il y a cent ans naissait un parti authentiquement populaire|date=December 2020}}</ref>

Semard sought party unity and alliances with other parties; but leaders including [[Thorez]] (party leader from 1930 to 1964) imposed a Marxist-Leninist line from the late 1920s. With the rise of [[fascism]] after 1934 the PCF supported the [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]], which came to power under [[Léon Blum]] in 1936.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mitzman |first=Arthur |date=December 1964 |title=The French Working Class and the Blum Government (1936–37) |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/french-working-class-and-the-blum-government-193637/14E79014145B0AB152E255805D07DAF4 |journal=International Review of Social History |language=en |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=363–390 |doi=10.1017/S0020859000002613 |issn=1469-512X}}</ref> The party supported the [[Second Spanish Republic]] and opposed the 1938 [[Munich Agreement]] with Hitler. It was the only political party in France to denounce this agreement.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1968/09/30/en-france-seuls-les-communistes-deux-deputes-et-quelques-journalistes-ont-combattu-l-accord_2481194_1819218.html | title=En France, seuls les communistes, deux députés et quelques journalistes ont combattu l'accord | newspaper=Le Monde.fr | date=30 September 1968}}</ref>

The party was banned in 1939 by the government of [[Édouard Daladier]] as a result of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact]], due to its membership in the [[Comintern]], which opposed the War (prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spencer |first=Erika Hope |title=Research Guides: France in WW II: The French Resistance: Communists in the French Resistance |url=https://guides.loc.gov/french-resistance-world-war-two/communists-in-the-french-resistance |access-date=2024-08-21 |website=guides.loc.gov |language=en}}</ref> The leadership, threatened with execution, fled abroad. After the [[Fall of France|German invasion of 1940]] the party began to organise opposition to the occupation. Shortly before [[German invasion of the Soviet Union|Germany invaded the Soviet Union]] the next year, the PCF formed, in May 1941, the [[National Front (French Resistance)|National Front]] movement within the broader [[French Resistance|Resistance]], together with the armed ''[[Francs-Tireurs et Partisans]]'' (FTP) group. At the same time the PCF began to work with [[Charles de Gaulle|de Gaulle]]'s "[[Free France]]" government in exile, and later took part in the [[National Council of the Resistance]] (CNR).

By the time the [[liberation of France|German occupation ended]] in 1944, the party had become a powerful force in many parts of France. It was among the leading parties in elections in 1945 and 1946, and entered into the governing [[Tripartisme|Tripartite]] alliance, which pursued social reforms and [[statism]]. However, amid concerns within France and abroad over the extent of communist influence, the PCF was [[May 1947 crises|excluded from government in May 1947]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adereth |first=Maxwell |title=The French Communist Party: a critical history (1920 - 84); from Comintern to 'the colours of France' |date=1984 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-1083-5 |location=Manchester [Greater Manchester]}}</ref> Under pressure from Moscow, the PCF thereafter distanced itself from other parties and focused on agitation within its trade union base. For the rest of the [[French Fourth Republic|Fourth Republic]] period the PCF, led by [[Thorez]] and Jacques Duclos, remained politically isolated, still taking a Marxist-Leninist line, though retaining substantial electoral support.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wall |first=Irwin M |date=1977 |title=The French Communists and the Algerian War |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/260039 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=521–543 |doi=10.1177/002200947701200306 |jstor=260039 |issn=0022-0094|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Although the PCF opposed de Gaulle's formation of the [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]] in 1958, the following years saw a {{lang|fr|rapprochement}} with other left-wing forces and an increased strength in parliament. 

By the middle of the 1960s, the PF lost members and sympathizers due to its ambivalent positions during the [[Algerian War|Algerian war]] and its perceived excessive focus on class and inadequate focus on [[imperialism]] and race.<ref name=":23222">{{Cite book |last=Bourg |first=Julian |title=Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History |date=2013 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-05722-7 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=Alexander C. |location=Cambridge |pages= |chapter=Principally Contradiction: The Flourishing of French Maoism}}</ref>{{Rp|page=226}}

With [[Waldeck Rochet]] as its new secretary-general, the party supported [[François Mitterrand]]'s unsuccessful presidential bid in 1965. During the student riots and strikes of [[May 1968 in France|May 1968]], the party supported the strikes while denouncing the revolutionary student movements. After heavy losses in the ensuing parliamentary elections, the party adopted [[Georges Marchais]] as leader and in 1973 entered into a "Common Programme" alliance with Mitterrand's reconstituted [[French Socialist Party|Socialist Party]] (PS). It provided for an increase in wages and social benefits, a reduction in working hours, a retirement age of 60 for men and 55 for women, the expansion of workers' rights and freedoms, the [[abolition of the death penalty]] and [[nuclear disarmament]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.franceinter.fr/politique/1936-1972-1997-ces-annees-ou-la-gauche-francaise-s-est-unie | title=1936, 1972, 1997 : Ces années où la gauche française s'est unie | date=5 May 2022}}</ref> In 1979 it was proposed by revisionists in France that party documents should omit Marxism–Leninism and use [[scientific socialism]] in its place.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/euroco/env2-1.htm | title = Enver Hoxha: 'Eurocommunism' is Anti-Communism – pt. 1 | quote = The French revisionist leaders proposed to their 23rd Congress, held in May 1979, that they should give up referring to Marxism-Leninism in the documents of their party and use the term "scientific socialism" instead.}}</ref> Under the Common Programme, however, the PCF steadily lost ground to the PS, a process that continued after Mitterrand's victory in 1981.

Initially allotted a minor share in Mitterrand's government, the PCF resigned in 1984 as the government turned towards fiscal orthodoxy. Under Marchais the party largely maintained its traditional communist doctrines and structure. Extensive reform was undertaken after 1994, when [[Robert Hue]] became leader. This did little to stem the party's declining popularity, although it entered government again in 1997 as part of the [[Plural Left]] coalition. Elections in 2002 gave worse results than ever for the PCF. Under [[Marie-George Buffet]], the PCF turned away from parliamentary strategy and sought broader social alliances. To maintain a presence in parliament after 2007 the party's few remaining deputies had to join others in the [[Democratic and Republican Left group]] (GDR). Subsequently, a broader electoral coalition, the [[Left Front (France)|Left Front]] (FG), was formed including the PCF, the [[Left Party (France)|Left Party]] (PG), [[Unitary Left]], and others. The FG has brought the French communists somewhat better electoral results. [[Pierre Laurent (politician)|Pierre Laurent]] was leader from 2010 to 2018, being succeeded by [[Fabien Roussel]] who stood as the party's candidate at the [[2022 French presidential election]]. Roussel received 2.28% of votes cast, coming in eighth place.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-04-11 |title=Anne Hidalgo obtains the worst presidential election result in the history of the Parti Socialiste |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/2022-presidential-election/article/2022/04/11/anne-hidalgo-obtains-the-worst-presidential-election-result-in-the-history-of-the-parti-socialiste-ps_5980262_16.html |access-date=2024-08-26 |language=en}}</ref>

==Ideology==
[[File:French Communist Party meeting in Paris 2012 (34).JPG|thumb|PCF rallying for a [[Proposed French Sixth Republic|Sixth Republic]], 2012 in Paris]]

The PCF, in contrast to weaker and more marginal [[List of communist parties|communist parties]] in Europe, is usually seen as a [[Left-wing politics|left wing]], rather than far-left, party in the French context. While the French far-left ([[Revolutionary Communist League (France)|LCR]]/[[New Anticapitalist Party|NPA]], [[Lutte Ouvrière|LO]]) has refused to participate in government or engage in electoral alliances with centre-left parties such as the PS, the PCF has participated in governments in the past, and still enjoys a ''de facto'' electoral agreement with the PS (mutual withdrawals, the common practice since 1962 and in 1934–1939). Nonetheless, some observers and analysts classify the PCF as a far-left party, noting their political proximity to other far-left parties.

During the [[Sino-Soviet split]], the PCF aligned with the Soviet perspective.<ref name=":23222" />{{Rp|page=226}}

In the 1980s, under [[Georges Marchais]], the PCF mixed a partial acceptance of "bourgeois" democracy and individual liberties with more traditional [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] ideas. During this same period the PCF was run on [[Democratic centralism|democratic centralist]] lines and structured itself as a revolutionary party in the [[Leninism|Leninist]] sense and rejected criticism of the [[Soviet Union]]. Under [[Robert Hue]]'s leadership after 1994, the PCF's ideology and internal organization underwent major changes.<ref name="Bréchon">{{Citation |first1=Bréchon |last1=Pierre|title=Les partis politiques français |publisher=La documentation française |year=2011}}</ref>{{rp|174}} Hue clearly rejected the Soviet model, and reserved very harsh criticism for Soviet leaders who had "rejected, for years, human rights and 'bourgeois' democracy" and had oppressed individual liberties and aspirations.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|174}} Today, the PCF considers the Soviet Union as a 'perversion' of the communist model and unambiguously rejects [[Stalinism]]. It has not attributed the failure of the Soviet Union as being that of [[communism]], rather stating that the failure of Soviet socialism was the failure of one model "among others", including the [[Capitalism|capitalist]] or [[Social democracy|social democratic]] models.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|176–177}} It also tried to downplay the PCF's historic attachment to Moscow and the Soviet Union.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|176–177}}

Since then, the PCF's ideology has been marked by significant ideological evolution on some topics, but consistency on other issues. Some of the most marked changes have come on individual rights and immigration. After having vilified [[homosexuality]] and feminism as "the rubbish of capitalism" in the 1970s, the PCF now supports gay rights and feminism.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|174}} In the 1980s, the PCF supported reducing the age of consent for homosexual relationships, and opposed attempts to re-penalize homosexuality. In 1998, the PCF voted in favour of the [[civil solidarity pact]] (PACS), civil unions, including for homosexual couples. The PCF supports both [[same-sex marriage]] and [[same-sex adoption]]. On 12 February 2013, PCF deputies voted in favour of same-sex marriage and adoption rights in the National Assembly,<ref>[http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/scrutins/jo0259.asp Analyse du scrutin n° 259 – Première séance du 12/02/2013] Results of the vote on the National Assembly's website</ref> though PCF deputy [[:fr:Patrice Carvalho|Patrice Carvalho]] voted against.<ref>[http://gauche.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/01/11/un-depute-pcf-contre-le-mariage-gay/ "Un député PCF contre le mariage gay"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130317022355/http://gauche.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/01/11/un-depute-pcf-contre-le-mariage-gay/ |date=17 March 2013}} in ''Rouges & verts'' in Lemonde.fr, 11 January 2013</ref> The PCF also supports feminist movements, and supports policies to further promote gender equality and parity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-23 |title=French women's rights supporters march against far right ahead of snap polls |url=https://www.france24.com/en/france/20240623-french-women-s-rights-supporters-march-against-far-right-ahead-of-snap-polls |access-date=2024-08-28 |website=France 24 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-15 |title=French protesters stand up to far right ahead of country's snap elections |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/french-protesters-stand-up-to-far-right-ahead-of-country-s-snap-elections/7657117.html |access-date=2024-08-28 |website=Voice of America |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boulland |first1=Paul |last2=Mischi |first2=Julian |date=2015 |title=The Promotion and Domination of Female Activists in Local French Communist Party Networks |url=https://shs.cairn.info/article/E_VING_126_0073?lang=en |journal=Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire |language=fr |volume=126 |issue=2 |pages=73–86 |doi=10.3917/ving.126.0073 |issn=0294-1759}}</ref>

Despite its moral conservatism in the 1930s and 1960s, in 1946, it elected seventeen of the first thirty-three women deputies. In 1956, there were only nineteen women in the National Assembly, but fifteen were Communists.<ref name="monde-diplomatique.fr"/>

On the issue of immigration, the PCF's positions have also evolved significantly since the 1980s. In the [[1981 French presidential election|1981 presidential election]], Georges Marchais ran a controversial campaign on immigration which was harshly criticized by anti-racism organizations at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=When the Morning Star justified racism {{!}} Workers' Liberty |url=https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2019-12-18/when-morning-star-justified-racism |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=www.workersliberty.org |language=en}}</ref> In 1980, the PCF's leadership voted in favour of limiting immigration. The same year, Marchais supported the PCF mayor of [[Vitry-sur-Seine]] who had destroyed a home for Malian migrant workers;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-09-09 |title=Stalinist mayor orders the dismantling of Roma camp near Paris |url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/09/roma-s09.html |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=World Socialist Web Site |language=en}}</ref> the PCF claimed that the right-wing government was trying to push immigrants into ghettos in Communist working-class cities.<ref>''L'Humanité'', 7 January 1981.</ref> The {{Lang|fr|[[Libération]]}} newspaper also alleged that PCF municipal administrations had been working to limit the number of immigrants in housing projects. However, today the PCF supports the regularization of [[Illegal immigration|illegal immigrants]].{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

One historical consistency in the PCF's ideology has been its staunch [[opposition to capitalism]], which must be "overcome" because according to the PCF the capitalist system is "exhausted" and "on the verge of collapse".<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|177}} The PCF has interpreted the current course of [[globalization]] as a confirmation of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]'s view on the future evolution of capitalism. The party position is that the [[2008 financial crisis]] and the [[Great Recession]] have further justified its calls to overcome capitalism.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|177}} However, the PCF has remained somewhat vague on how capitalism will be 'overcome' and what will replace it, placing heavy emphasis on utopic models or values.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|178}}

The text adopted at the XXXVI Congress in February 2013 reiterated the party's call on the need to "overcome" capitalism, fiercely denounced by the PCF as having led to "savage competition", "the devastation of the planet" and "barbarism".<ref name="pcf36">[http://www.pcf.fr/sites/default/files/36_humanifeste_pcf_0.pdf « Il est grand temps de rallumer  les étoiles... » – Humanifeste du Parti communiste français à l'aube du siècle qui vient] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032126/http://www.pcf.fr/sites/default/files/36_humanifeste_pcf_0.pdf |date=4 March 2016}} Text adopted by the XXXVI Congress of the PCF 10 February 2013.</ref> It contrasts its vision of capitalism with its proposed alternative, described as an [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]], [[Humanism|humanist]], and [[Democracy|democratic]] alternative. It emphasizes human emancipation, the development of "each and every one", the right to happiness and the equal dignity of each human being regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation.<ref name="pcf36"/> The party further posits that such an egalitarian society is impossible within capitalism, which "unleashes domination and hatred".<ref name="pcf36"/>

The party is generally seen as [[Euroscepticism|Eurosceptic]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=France |url=https://europeelects.eu/france/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=Europe Elects |language=en-US}}</ref>

For the [[2022 French legislative election]], the party joined the [[New Ecologic and Social People's Union]] (NUPES) bloc of left-wing and green parties. In the alliance, they were the only party to support nuclear energy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Legislative elections: the main parties' positions on nuclear power |url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/legislative-elections-main-parties-positions-nuclear- |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=www.linkedin.com |language=en}}</ref>

===2012 platform===
[[Jean-Luc Mélenchon]] and the FG's platform in the 2012 presidential election was broken up into nine overarching themes.<ref>[http://www.pcf.fr/18541 Le programme du Front de gauche et de son candidat commun Jean-Luc Mélenchon – L'humain d'abord] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508234254/http://www.pcf.fr/18541 |date=8 May 2013 }} on the PCF website {{in lang|fr}}</ref>
* "Sharing the wealth and abolishing social insecurity" – banning market-based layoffs ({{lang|fr|licenciements boursiers}}) for companies which make profits, raise the [[minimum wage]] (SMIC) to €1,700, setting a maximum wage differential of 1 to 20 in all businesses, right to retirement with a full pension at 60, defending public services, stopping public sector spending cuts (RGPP), setting a [[maximum wage]] at €360,000 and a [[35-hour workweek]].
* "Reclaiming power from banks and financial markets" – changing the [[European Central Bank]]'s policy to favour job creation and public services, controlling financial speculation, raising the [[capital gains tax]] and the [[solidarity tax on wealth]] (ISF), abolishing fiscal loopholes and privileges, taxing corporations' financial revenues and creating a "public financial pole" to reorient credit towards jobs, innovation and sustainable development.
* "Ecological planning" – [[Nationalization|nationalizing]] ''[[Électricité de France]]'', ''[[Gaz de France]]'' and [[Areva]] to create a publicly owned energy sector, creating a national public water service, a new transportation policy promoting public transportation and taxing the transportation of non-vital merchandise.
* "Producing differently"  – a new model of development and [[economic growth]] which respects the environment and individuals, redefining industrial priorities, new rights for employees and creating a [[gross national happiness]] indicator.
* "The Republic, for real" – reaffirming the [[1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State]], creating a ministry for women and equality, repealing the [[HADOPI law]], regularizing [[illegal immigrants]], opposition to the [[Golden Rule (fiscal policy)|golden rule]] of fiscal balance and creating jobs in the [[public sector]].
* "Convene a constituent assembly for the [[Proposed French Sixth Republic|Sixth Republic]]" – convening a constituent assembly, repealing the 2010 local and regional government reform, [[proportional representation]] in all elections, reducing presidential powers and strengthening parliamentary powers, and guaranteeing judicial and press freedom.
* "Repealing the Lisbon Treaty and creating another Europe" – repealing the [[Treaty of Lisbon]], opposition to the [[European Fiscal Compact]], proposing and adopting a new European treaty which would "prioritize social progress and democracy" and reforming the statutes of the [[European Central Bank]].
* "To change the course of globalization" – withdrawing French troops from the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|war in Afghanistan]], French withdrawal from [[NATO]], recognizing the independence of a [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] state within [[Green Line (Israel)|1967 borders]], creation of a [[Tobin tax]] to finance international development and cooperation, [[Debt relief|debt forgiveness]] for low-income countries.
* "Prioritizing human emancipation" – creating jobs in public education, spending 1% of GDP on arts and culture, and doubling investment in research.

The platform also supported [[same-sex marriage]], [[same-sex adoption]], [[Right of foreigners to vote|voting rights for resident foreigners]], [[euthanasia]], and constitutional recognition of [[abortion]].

===French nationalism===
{{Main|Demographics of France|Separatism in Europe}}

The French Communist Party inherited from the [[Jacobins]] the concept of France as a centralised, [[French-speaking]], unitary state, with a unitary culture and it is opposed to the separatism and regional identity of other European minority groups native to the area of what consists the French Republic. For instance in 1984, the Soviet ethnographer Solomon Bruk (who had worked under [[Sergey Tolstov]]) published a study on France and mentioned the existence of other ethnic groups in the state such as [[Bretons]], [[Corsicans]], [[Alsatians (people)|Alsatians]], [[Basques]], [[Catalans]], [[Flemish people|Flemish]] and others. In response to this work, General Secretary [[Georges Marchais]] wrote a letter of protest in February 1984, complaining bitterly to the [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{harvnb|Berresford Ellis|1985|p=210}}.</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=France is one country, one nation, one people. We protest indignantly against such ridiculous and odious allegations. For us, as for all the citizens of our country, every man and woman of French nationality is French. Every attempt using hazardous criteria which borders on racism in an ill-defined way, seeking to define as not purely French such and such members of the French community, is offensive to the national consciousness. Nobody here can accept that, our Party least of all.|author=George Marchais|title=''Letter  to the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the USSR, February 1984.''<ref>{{harvnb|Berresford Ellis|1985|p=211}}.</ref>}}

==Elected officials==
* Deputies: [[Elsa Faucillon]], [[Soumya Bourouaha]], [[André Chassaigne]], Stephane Little, [[Jean-Paul Lecoq]], [[Édouard Bénard]]
* Senators: Peter Lawrence, Pierre Ouzoulias, [[Christine Prunaud]], Michelle Greaume, [[Éric Bocquet]], Celine Brulin, [[Fabien Gay]], [[Cathy Apourceau-Poly]], [[Éliane Assassi]], Laurence Cohen, [[Cécile Cukierman]], Pascal Savoldelli

The PCF does not, {{as of|May 2022|lc=yes}}, have any [[Member of the European Parliament|MEPs]]. It has two [[President of the General Council|Presidents of the General Council]] – in the [[Val-de-Marne]] and [[Allier]]. The PCF lost [[Seine-Saint-Denis]], which it had held since the 1960s, to the PS in 2008.

==Internal organization==
The PCF has traditionally been a "mass party", although [[Maurice Duverger]] had differentiated it from other mass parties because the PCF kept a tight control over membership and regularly expelled unsuitable members. In its heyday, the PCF maintained a large base of members and the party's political and electoral actions were supported in society by a [[trade union]], the [[General Confederation of Labour (France)|General Confederation of Labour]] (CGT); a [[newspaper]], ''[[L'Humanité]]''; and a large number of [[Communist front|front organizations]] or associations in civil society which organized a large number of political or non-political social activities for PCF members.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|166}} One such activity which still exists today is the annual ''[[Fête de l'Humanité]]'' organized by the ''L'Humanité''. French and foreign left-wing parties, organizations or movements are represented and the activities feature musical performances.

Since the PCF's decline began in the 1970s, however, it has seen its membership base slowly dry up and its allied organizations disappear or distance themselves from the party. The PCF claimed 520,000 members in 1978; 330,000 in 1987; 270,000 in 1996; and 133,000 in 2002.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|166}} In 2008, the party claimed that it had 134,000 members of which 79,000 were up to date on their membership fees.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|166}} In the 2011 internal primary, 69,277 members were registered to vote and 48,631 (70.2%) did so.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|166}} The party likely has about 70,000 members as of today, but only about 40 to 50 thousand seem to actively participate in the party's organization and political activities.

According to studies by the CEVIPOF in 1979 and 1997, the makeup of the PCF's membership has also changed significantly since 1979. The most marked change was a major decline in the share of manual workers ({{lang|fr|ouvriers}}) in the party's membership, with a larger number of employees and middle-classes, especially those who work in the [[public sector]].<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|175}} The form of political action taken by members has also changed, with less emphasis on direct political or electoral action but a greater emphasis on social work and protests.

The party's structures were democratized at the 1994 Congress, dropping [[democratic centralism]] and allowing for the public expression of disapproval or dissent with the party line or leadership. The party's top posts, like that of 'secretary-general', were renamed (secretary-general became national-secretary). The party, since 2000, is now led by a national council, which serves as the leadership between congresses; and the executive committee, which is charged with applying the national council's decisions. The national-secretary is elected by delegates at the congress. Likewise, the national council is elected by list voting at every congress. A reform of statutes in 2001 has allowed "alternative texts" – dissent from the text proposed by the PCF leadership – to be presented and voted on; dissident lists to those backed by the leadership may also run for the national council.<ref name="Bréchon"/>{{rp|170–171}}

The [[General Confederation of Labour (France)|General Confederation of Labour]] (CGT) was dominated by the PCF after 1946, with almost all its leaders between 1947 and 1996 ([[Benoît Frachon]], [[Georges Séguy]], [[Henri Krasucki]], [[Louis Viannet]]) also serving in the PCF's national leadership structures. For years, the CGT and the PCF were close and almost indissociable allies – notably in May 1968 when both the CGT and PCF were eager for a restoration of social order and welcomed the [[Grenelle agreements]]. While the CGT has remained the largest trade union in France, it has taken its independence vis-à-vis the PCF. Louis Viannet spectacularly quit the national bureau of the PCF in 1996 and [[Bernard Thibault]], the CGT's leader between 1999 and 2013, left the PCF's national council in 2001.

''L'Humanité'' has retained closer ties with the PCF. The newspaper was founded by [[Jean Jaurès]] in 1904 as the socialist movement's mouthpiece, and it followed the communist majority following the split in 1920. After having been the official newspaper of the PCF, with a readership of up to 100,000 in 1945, the newspaper's readership and sales declined substantially partly due to the PCF's concomitant decline. In 1999, the mention of the newspaper's link to the PCF was dropped and the PCF no longer determines its editorial stance. It sold an average of 46,929 newspapers per day in 2012; down from 53,530 in 2007.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ojd.com/adherent/2661 |title=Official report on the OJD website |publisher=Ojd.com |access-date=2014-07-10 |archive-date=30 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430123845/http://www.ojd.com/adherent/2661 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Leadership===
Secretaries-general (1921–1994) and national-secretaries (since 1994)
* [[Ludovic-Oscar Frossard]]: 4 January 1921 – 1 January 1923
* Louis Sellier and Albert Treint, interim secretaries-general: 21 January 1923 – 23 January 1924
* Louis Sellier:  23 January 1924 – 1 July 1924
* [[Pierre Semard]]: 8 July 1924 – 8 April 1929
* Collective secretariat ([[Henri Barbé]], [[Pierre Celor]], [[Benoît Frachon]], [[Maurice Thorez]]): 8 April 1929 – 18 July 1930
* [[Maurice Thorez]]: 18 July 1930 – 17 May 1964 (president between 17 May and his death on 11 July 1964)
** [[Jacques Duclos]], interim secretary-general: 17 June 1950 – 10 April 1953
* [[Waldeck Rochet]]: 17 May 1964 – 17 December 1972 (deputy secretary-general from 14 May 1961 to 17 May 1964)
** [[Georges Marchais]], interim secretary-general later deputy secretary-general from June 1969 to 17 December 1972
* [[Georges Marchais]]: 17 December 1972 – 29 January 1994
* [[Robert Hue]]: 29 January 1994 – 28 October 2001 (president between 28 October 2001 and 8 April 2003)
* [[Marie-George Buffet]]: 28 October 2001 – 20 June 2010
* [[Pierre Laurent (politician)|Pierre Laurent]]: 20 June 2010 – 24 November 2018
* [[Fabien Roussel]]: since 24 November 2018

===Factions===
There are no formal organized factions or political groupings within the PCF. This was originally due to the practice of democratic centralism, but even after the democratization of the PCF structure after 1994 the ban on the organization of formal factions within the party remained. According to party statutes, the PCF supports the "pluralism of ideas" but the right to pluralism "may not be translated into an organizations of tendencies".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pcf.fr/sites/default/files/statuts_adoptes_36_congres_0.pdf |title=Official party statutes on the PCF website |access-date=2014-07-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516201739/http://www.pcf.fr/sites/default/files/statuts_adoptes_36_congres_0.pdf |archive-date=16 May 2013}}</ref> Nevertheless, certain factions and groups are easily identifiable within the PCF and they are ''de facto'' expressed officially by different orientation texts or lists for leadership elections at party congresses.
* Majority: the current leadership of the PCF since 2003 is around [[Marie-George Buffet]] and [[Pierre Laurent (politician)|Pierre Laurent]] and supports the continued existence of the PCF, but with the need for internal transformations. Vis-à-vis the PS, the PCF leadership has taken a more autonomous stance but it still sees the PS as a potential electoral partner (in runoff elections or in local elections) and even as a potential governing partner. The leadership has been generally strongly supportive of the [[Left Front (France)|Left Front]] alliance with other parties, which it sees as a "new Popular Front" as a culmination of its attempts, undertaken since 2003, to broaden the PCF's base to social movements, associations, unions and other left-wing or far-left parties.
* Orthodox: the heterogeneous faction of PCF "orthodox" refers to those traditionalist members who opposed the {{lang|fr|mutation}} of the 1990s and wish to return to [[Marxist–Leninist]] fundamentals. The orthodox faction opposes electoral alliances or governing coalitions with the PS, and it has also proven fairly lukewarm to the Left Front and has often been critical of [[Jean-Luc Mélenchon]]'s influence over the FG and his 2012 candidacy. Unlike the majority which supports European integration under the form "social Europe" or "another Europe", the orthodox wish to withdraw from the [[European Union]] and the [[Eurozone]]. Prominent orthodox factions and leaders include Jean-Jacques Karman's Communist Left, Emmanuel Dang Tran's PCF section in the [[15th arrondissement of Paris]], [[André Gerin]], [[Alain Bocquet]], and Patrice Carvalho. The PCF orthodox factions has strong support in the old PCF federations in northern France ([[Nord-Pas-de-Calais]], [[Somme (department)|Somme]], [[Seine-Maritime]]) or other federations such as the [[Meurthe-et-Moselle]], the [[Haute-Saône]], [[Aisne]] and [[Tarn (department)|Tarn]].
: Some orthodox communists have chosen to leave the PCF. In 2004, the FNARC group around Georges Hage founded the small [[Pole of Communist Revival in France]] (PRCF). [[Maxime Gremetz]] was sidelined from the PCF in 2006, after major disagreements with the leadership, and has since founded a small political movement (Anger and Hope, ''Colère et espoir'') active only in his native Picardy. A group of hardline orthodox around former PCF senator {{ill|Rolande Perlican|fr}} founded the ''Communistes'' party.
* ''Novateurs'', also known as conservatives: a small faction led by supporters of [[Georges Marchais]]' old political line (i.e. traditional Marxism adapted to modern circumstances) as developed by PCF economist and historian Paul Boccara, who developed the idea of [[state monopoly capitalism]]. Leaders of the faction include Nicolas Marchand and Yves Dimicoli.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Te4bAQAAMAAJ&q=Novateurs%20Nicolas%20Marchand%20and%20Yves%20Dimicoli. |title=Revue politique et parlementaire |date=2003 |publisher=A. Colin |language=fr}}</ref>
* ''La Riposte'': a political association within the PCF which was the French section of the [[Revolutionary Communist International|International Marxist Tendency]], a [[Trotskyist]] [[entryism|entryist]] organization, until 2014.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Declaration on the internal situation of "La Riposte"|url=https://www.marxiste.org/actualite-francaise/politique-francaise/1-declaration-sur-la-situation-interne-de-la-riposte|website=marxiste.org|date=29 May 2014 }}</ref> They are ideologically close to the orthodox faction on rejecting alliances with the PS or a return to Marxist fundamentals but they differ significantly from the orthodox faction in their severe condemnations of [[Stalinism]] and the later [[Soviet Union]]. They also support the Left Front.
* ''Huistes'': the allies of former secretary-general [[Robert Hue]] (1994–2001) have mostly left the PCF. Hue's leadership was marked by internal democratizations as part of his ''mutation'', but also close cooperation and alliances with the PS. The ''Huistes'' tend to be the most supportive of electoral and government alliances with the PS. Hue remains, technically, a member of the PCF; but he has broken with the current leadership. As a senator, he sits in the [[European Democratic and Social Rally]] (RDSE) and leads a small political movement, the [[Progressive Unitary Movement]] (MUP) which has one deputy elected in 2012 with PS support and who sits with the [[Radical Party of the Left]] (PRG) group in the National Assembly. The MUP supports the creation of a broad alliance with the PS, the Greens (EELV), the PRG and even some centrists. Besides Hue, some of prominent followers include [[Jean-Claude Gayssot]], [[Jack Ralite]] or [[Ivan Renar]].
* ''Refondateurs''/''Rénovateurs'': the reformist faction of the PCF, known either as ''refondateurs'' or ''rénovateurs'', has mostly left the PCF today, but they played an important role in the PCF's internal politics for decades and they continue to be closely associated to the PCF through the Left Front. The reformist faction, ideologically aligned with the [[New Left]], [[Eurocommunism]], [[ecosocialism]], [[feminism]] and [[democratic socialism]], has long been at odds with the PCF's leadership. Under Marchais, they opposed the traditionalist Marxist and pro-Soviet direction of the party and chafed at the party's democratic centralism.
: Many dissident Communist reformists supported [[Pierre Juquin]]'s candidacy in the [[1988 French presidential election|1988 presidential election]], alongside 'red-green' ecosocialists, the remnants of the [[Unified Socialist Party (France)|Unified Socialist Party]] (PSU) and the [[Revolutionary Communist League (France)|LCR]]. PCF dissidents who had backed Juquin's candidacy, including former cabinet ministers [[Marcel Rigout]] and [[Charles Fiterman]] participated in the foundation of the [[Convention for a Progressive Alternative]] (CAP) in 1994, which has since obtained limited support only in a few departments. [[Jean-Pierre Brard]], the CAP's sole parliamentarian until his defeat in 2012, sat with the PCF in the National Assembly.
: Reformists who remained within the PCF, such as [[Patrick Braouezec]], [[François Asensi]] and [[Jacqueline Fraysse]], opposed Hue and Buffet's leadership: they did not support the PCF's presidential candidates in 2002 and 2007, and they clamored for the re-foundation of the PCF as part of a broader left-wing movements including left-wing Greens, ecosocialists, the far-left, social movements and left-wing associations. Despite the creation of the Left Front, the reformists led by Braouezec left the PCF in 2010 and joined the small Federation for a Social and Ecological Alternative (FASE) which is now a component of the Left Front.

====Factional strength====
Preparatory votes on orientation texts for PCF Congresses since 2003:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Faction !! XXXII (2003)<ref name="frpol">[http://www.france-politique.fr/chronologie-pcf.htm Chronologie PCF] in France-politique.fr</ref> !! XXXIII (2006)<ref name="frpol" /> !! XXXIV (2008)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://maine-et-loire.pcf.fr//IMG/pdf/resultats_des_votes_par_federations.pdf |title=Results of the XXXIV Congress by federation |access-date=2014-07-10 |archive-date=16 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516202459/http://maine-et-loire.pcf.fr//IMG/pdf/resultats_des_votes_par_federations.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> !! XXXVI (2013)<ref>[http://www.pcf.fr/sites/default/files/501_communistes_0.pdf Official results of the XXXVI Congress] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516202121/http://www.pcf.fr/sites/default/files/501_communistes_0.pdf |date=16 May 2013 }} in ''CommunisteS'' #501</ref> !! XXXVII (2016)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pcf.fr/87304 |title=Official results of the XXXVII Congress |access-date=12 November 2017 |archive-date=13 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913234608/http://www.pcf.fr/87304 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|-
| Majority || 55.02% || 63.38% || 60.9% || 73.16% || 51,20%
|-
| Orthodox || 23.60% || 13.25%{{efn|André Gerin, Communist Left}}<br />8.22%{{efn|Paris' 15th arrondissement}}<br />3.71%{{efn|Maxime Gremetz, ''Colère et espoir''}} || 24.02% || 10.99%<br />5.81%{{efn|Paris' 15th arrondissement – Emmanuel Dang Tran}} || 23,68%<br />12,87%<br />6,86%
|-
| ''Novateurs'' || 21.38% || 11.44% || – || – || –
|-
| ''La Riposte'' || – || – || 15.05% || 10.05% || 5,40%
|}
{{Notelist}}
At the XXXIV Congress in 2008, for the election of the national council, the majority's list won 67.73% from the congress' delegates against 16.38% for Marie-Pierre Vieu's ''huiste'' list backed by the ''refondateurs'', 10.26% for André Gerin's orthodox list and 5.64% for Nicolas Marchand's ''novateur'' list.<ref name="frpol" />

==Popular support and electoral record==
Currently, the PCF retains some strength in suburban Paris, in the [[Nord (French department)|Nord]] section of the old coal mining area in the [[Nord-Pas-de-Calais]], the industrial harbours of [[Le Havre]] and [[Dieppe, Seine-Maritime|Dieppe]], in some departments of central France, such as [[Allier]] and [[Cher (department)|Cher]] (where a form of [[sharecropping]] existed, in addition to mining and small industrial-mining centres such as [[Commentry]] and [[Montceau-les-Mines]]), the industrial mining region of northern [[Meurthe-et-Moselle]] ([[Longwy]]) and in some cities of the south, such as the industrial areas of [[Marseille]] and nearby towns, as well as the working-class suburbs surrounding Paris (the {{lang|fr|ceinture rouge}}), [[Lyon]], [[Saint-Étienne]], [[Alès]] and [[Grenoble]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.atlaspol.com/|title= Atlaspol}}</ref> The PCF is also strong in the [[Cévennes]] mountains, a left-wing rural anti-clerical stronghold with a strong [[Huguenot]] minority.

Communist traditions in the "Red [[Limousin (region)|Limousin]]", the [[Pas-de-Calais]], Paris proper, [[Nièvre]], Finistère, [[Alpes-Maritimes]] and [[Var (department)|Var]] have been hurt significantly by demographic changes (Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Finistère), a loss of voters to the [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party]] due to good local Socialist infrastructure or strongmen (Nièvre, Pas-de-Calais, Paris) or due to the emergence of rival parties on the radical left (the [[Convention for a Progressive Alternative]], a party of reformist communists, in the [[Limousin (region)|Limousin]] and [[Val-de-Marne]]).

There exist isolated Communist bases in the rural anti-clerical areas of southwestern [[Côtes-d'Armor]] and northwestern [[Morbihan]]; in the industrial areas of [[Le Mans]]; in the shipbuilding cities of [[Saint-Nazaire]], [[La Seyne-sur-Mer]] (there are no more ships built in La Seyne); and in isolated industrial centres built along the old Paris-Lyon railway (the urban core of [[Romilly-sur-Seine]], Aube has elected a Communist general councillor since 1958).

During the course of the 20th century, the French communists were considered to be pioneers in local government, providing not only efficient street lighting and clean streets, but also public entertainment, public housing, municipal swimming pools, day nurseries, children's playgrounds, and public lavatories.<ref>Life World Library: France by D. W. Brogan and the Editors of LIFE, 1961, P.47</ref> In 1976, for instance, the communist mayor of Sarcelles, Henry Canacos, was named "best mayor in the Paris region" by Vie Publique (a trade periodical for urban planners and administrators) for enriching Sarcelles' public spaces with new restaurants, movie theatres, cafes, more parks, a large shopping mall, and better transportation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Maxwell|first=Rahsaan|title=Ethnic Minority Migrants in Britain and France: Integration Trade-Offs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZrkMSQrmBQC&pg=PA169|year=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00481-8|page=169}}</ref> Education also became, in the words of one text, an "identifiable characteristic of Communist government at the local level". A study of municipal budgets that was completed in 1975 (but using data from 1968) found that while Communist local government spent 34% less than non-Communist Left governments and 36% less than moderate-Right governments for maintenance, it nevertheless spent 49% more than moderate Right governments and 36% more than non-Communist Left governments for education and educational support.<ref>French Politics and Public Policy. Edited by Philip G. Cerny and Martin A. Schain</ref>

===Presidential===
{| class=wikitable
|-
! rowspan=2|Election year
! rowspan=2|Candidate
! colspan="3" |1st round
! colspan="3" |2nd round
! rowspan="2" |Result
|-
! Votes
! %
!Rank
! Votes
! %
!Rank
|-
! [[1969 French presidential election|1969]]
| [[Jacques Duclos]]
| 4,808,285
| 21.27
| {{increase}} 3rd
| colspan="3" {{N/A}}
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! [[1974 French presidential election|1974]]
| colspan=8 align=center|''endorsed [[François Mitterrand|Mitterrand]] [[Socialist Party (France)|(PS)]]''
|-
! [[1981 French presidential election|1981]]
| [[Georges Marchais]]
| 4,456,922
| 15.35
| {{decrease}} 4th
| colspan=3 {{N/A}}
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! [[1988 French presidential election|1988]]
| [[André Lajoinie]]
| 2,056,261
| 6.76
| {{decrease}} 5th
| colspan=3 {{N/A}}
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! [[1995 French presidential election|1995]]
| rowspan=2 |[[Robert Hue]]
| 2,638,936
| 8.66
| {{steady}} 5th
| colspan=3 {{N/A}}
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! [[2002 French presidential election|2002]]
| 960,480
| 3.37
| {{decrease}} 11th
| colspan=3 {{N/A}}
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! [[2007 French presidential election|2007]]
| [[Marie-George Buffet]]
| 707,268
| 1.93
| {{increase}} 7th
| colspan=3 {{N/A}}
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! [[2012 French presidential election|2012]]{{efn|Supported [[Jean-Luc Mélenchon]] as candidate for the [[Left Front (France)|Left Front]].}}
| [[Jean-Luc Mélenchon]]
| 3,984,822
| 11.10
| {{increase}} 4th
| colspan=3 {{N/A}}
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! [[2017 French presidential election|2017]]
| colspan=8 align=center |''endorsed [[Jean-Luc Mélenchon|Mélenchon]] [[La France Insoumise|(LFI)]]''
|-
! [[2022 French presidential election|2022]]
| [[Fabien Roussel]]
| 802,422
| 2.28
| {{decrease}} 8th
| colspan=3 {{N/A}}
| {{no|Lost}}
|}
{{Notelist}}

===Legislative===
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
|+ [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]]
! rowspan=2| Election
! colspan=2| Votes <small>(first round)</small>
! colspan=2| Seats
|-
! style="width:100px"| #
! style="width:50px"| %
! style="width:50px"| #
! style="width:50px"| ±
|-
! [[1924 French legislative election|1924]]
| 885,993
| 9.8
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|26|581|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{steady}}
|-
! [[1928 French legislative election|1928]]
| 1,066,099
| 11.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|11|604|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 15
|-
! [[1932 French legislative election|1932]]
| 796,630
| 8.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|10|607|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 1
|-
! [[1936 French legislative election|1936]]
| 1,502,404
| 15.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|72|610|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 62
|-
! [[1945 French legislative election|1945]]
| 5,024,174
| 26.2
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|159|586|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 87
|-
! [[June 1946 French legislative election|1946 <small>(Jun)</small>]]
| 5,145,325
| 26.0
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|153|586|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 6
|-
! [[November 1946 French legislative election|1946 <small>(Nov)</small>]]
| 5,430,593
| 28.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|182|627|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 29
|-
! [[1951 French legislative election|1951]]
| 4,939,380
| 26.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|103|625|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 79
|-
! [[1956 French legislative election|1956]]
| 5,514,403
| 23.6
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|150|595|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 47
|-
! [[1958 French legislative election|1958]]
| 3,882,204
| 18.9
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|10|546|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 140
|-
! [[1962 French legislative election|1962]]
| 4,003,553
| 20.8
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|41|465|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 31
|-
! [[1967 French legislative election|1967]]
| 5,039,032
| 22.5
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|73|487|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 32
|-
! [[1968 French legislative election|1968]]
| 4,434,832
| 20.0
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|34|487|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 39
|-
! [[1973 French legislative election|1973]]
| 5,085,108
| 21.4
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|73|488|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 39
|-
! [[1978 French legislative election|1978]]
| 5,870,402
| 20.6
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|86|488|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 13
|-
! [[1981 French legislative election|1981]]
| 4,065,540
| 16.2
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|44|491|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 42
|-
! [[1986 French legislative election|1986]]
| 2,739,225
| 9.8
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|35|573|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 9
|-
! [[1988 French legislative election|1988]]
| 2,765,761
| 11.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|27|575|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 8
|-
! [[1993 French legislative election|1993]]
| 2,331,339
| 9.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|24|577|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 3
|-
! [[1997 French legislative election|1997]]
| 2,523,405
| 9.9
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|35|577|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 11
|-
! [[2002 French legislative election|2002]]
| 1,216,178
| 4.8
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|21|577|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 14
|-
! [[2007 French legislative election|2007]]
| 1,115,663
| 4.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|15|577|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 6
|-
! [[2012 French legislative election|2012]]
| 1,792,923
| 6.9
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|7|577|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 8
|-
! [[2017 French legislative election|2017]]
| 615,487
| 2.7
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|10|577|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 3
|-
! [[2022 French legislative election|2022]]
| 607,667
| 2.9
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|12|577|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 2
|-
! [[2024 French legislative election|2024]]
| 740,940
| 2.3
| style="text-align:right;"| {{Composition bar compact|8|577|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 4
|}

===European Parliament===
{| class="wikitable"style="text-align:center"
|+ [[European Parliament]]
! Election
! Leader
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/−
! EP Group
|-
! [[1979 European Parliament election in France|1979]]
| rowspan="2" |[[Georges Marchais]]
| 4,153,710
| 20.52 (#3)
| {{Composition bar|19|81|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| New
| rowspan="2" |[[Communists and Allies|COM]]
|-
! [[1984 European Parliament election in France|1984]]
| 2,261,312
| 11.21 (#3)
| {{Composition bar|10|81|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 9
|-
! [[1989 European Parliament election in France|1989]]
| Philippe Herzog
| 1,401,171
| 7.72 (#6)
| {{Composition bar|7|81|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 3
| [[European United Left (1989-1993)|EUL]]
|-
! [[1994 European Parliament election in France|1994]]
| [[Francis Wurtz]]
| 1,342,222
| 6.89 (#6)
| {{Composition bar|7|87|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
| [[Confederal Group of the European United Left|EUL]]
|-
! [[1999 European Parliament election in France|1999]]
| [[Robert Hue]]
| 1,196,310
| 6.78 (#6)
| {{Composition bar|6|87|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 1
| rowspan="4" |[[European United Left - Nordic Green Left|GUE/NGL]]
|-
! [[2004 European Parliament election in France|2004]]{{efn|Run in a joint list with [[Alliance of the Overseas|AOM]], that won 3 seats in total.}}
| rowspan="2" |[[Marie-George Buffet]]
| 1,009,976
| 5.88 (#7)
| {{Composition bar|2|74|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 4
|-
! [[2009 European Parliament election in France|2009]]{{efn|Run in a joint list with [[Left Party (France)|PG]], [[Unitary Left|GU]] and [[Alliance of the Overseas|AOM]], that won 5 seats in total.}}
| 1,115,021
| 6.48 (#5)
| {{Composition bar|3|72|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{increase}} 1
|-
! [[2014 European Parliament election in France|2014]]{{efn|Run in a joint list with [[Left Party (France)|PG]], [[Unitary Left|GU]] and [[Alliance of the Overseas|AOM]], that won 4 seats in total.}}
| [[Jean-Luc Mélenchon]]
| 1,252,730
| 6.61 (#6)
| {{Composition bar|1|74|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 2
|-
! [[2019 European Parliament election in France|2019]]{{efn|Run in a joint list with [[Republic and Socialism|R&S]], [[Communist Party of Réunion|PCR]] and [[Martinican Communist Party|PCM]], that won no seats.}}
| [[Ian Brossat]]
| 564,949
| 2.49 (#10)
| {{Composition bar|0|79|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{decrease}} 1
| rowspan="2" |−
|-
! [[2024 European Parliament election in France|2024]]{{efn|Run in a joint list with [[Federation of the Republican Left|FGR]], [[Communist Party of Réunion|PCR]], [[Martinican Communist Party|PCM]] and [[Humains et Dignes|HeD]], that won no seats.}}
| [[Léon Deffontaines]]
| 584,020
| 2.36 (#8)
| {{Composition bar|0|81|{{party color|French Communist Party}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
|}
{{Notelist}}

==Publications==
The PCF publishes the following:
* ''Communistes'' (''Communists'')
* ''Info Hebdo'' (''Weekly News'')
* ''Economie et Politique'' (''Economics and Politics'')

Traditionally, it was also the owner of the French daily ''[[L'Humanité]]'' (''Humanity''), founded by [[Jean Jaurès]]. Although the newspaper is now independent, it remains close to the PCF. The paper is sustained by the annual ''Fête de L'Humanité'' festival, held in [[La Courneuve]], a working class suburb of Paris. This event remains the biggest festival in France, with {{formatnum:600000}} attendees during a three-day period.

During the 1970s, the PCF registered success with the children's magazine it founded, ''[[Pif gadget]]''.

==See also==
{{Portal bar|Communism|France}}
* [[Communism in France]]
* [[List of foreign delegations at 24th PCF Congress (1982)]]
* [[Place du Colonel Fabien]]
* ''[[Reading Capital]]'', by Louis Althusser, 1965
* [[MRAP (French NGO)|MRAP]], anti-racist NGO, created in 1941
* [[Roger Roche]], founder of a cell of the French Communist Party in Rufisque in 1925
* [[French branch of the Armenian Relief Committee]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Bell, D. S. and Byron Criddle. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BYe7QDYJ0sUC The French Communist Party in the Fifth Republic]''. (1994)
* Bourgeois, Guillaume, "French Communism and the Communist International", in Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe (eds.), ''International Communism and the Communist International, 1919–43''. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.
* Bulaitis, John, [https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/maurice-thorez-9781845117252/ ''Maurice Thorez: A Biography''], I. B. Tauris, 2018.
* {{cite book|title=The Celtic Revolution: Study in Anti-Imperialism|last=Berresford Ellis|first=Peter|year=1985|publisher=Y Lolfa Cyf|isbn=978-0862430962}}
* Hazareesingh, Sudhir. ''Intellectuals and the French Communist Party: Disillusion and Decline''. Oxford University Press, 1991.
* Hughes, Hannah Cole. "Contemporary Perspectives on the French Communist Party: A Dying Ideology?" Thesis. Kent State University, 2013. [https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/ksuhonors1368205610/inline online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140506081457/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/ksuhonors1368205610/inline|date=6 May 2014}}
* Joly, Danièle. ''The French Communist Party and the Algerian War''. (1991)
* Kemp, Tom. ''Stalinism in France: The first twenty years of the French Communist Party''. London: New Park, 1984.
* Raymond, Gino G. ''The French Communist Party during the Fifth Republic: A Crisis of Leadership and Ideology''. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
* Sacker, Richard. ''A Radiant Future. The French Communist Party and Eastern Europe, 1944–1956''. Peter Lang, 1999.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.pcf.fr PCF home page]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050305111920/http://www.pcf.fr/?iddos=53 ''Communistes'' home page]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050207134553/http://www.pcf.fr/?iddos=25 ''Info Hebdo'' home page]
* [http://www.economie-politique.org/ ''Economie et Politique'' home page]
* [https://www.humanite.fr/ ''L'Humanité'' home page]
* [http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/france/index.htm Communist Party of France at Marxists Internet Archive]

{{French political parties}}
{{European communist parties}}
{{Party of the European Left}}
{{French Communist Party}}
{{SFIO}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:French Communist Party}}
[[Category:French Communist Party| ]]
[[Category:Political parties of the French Fifth Republic]]
[[Category:International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties]]