The ('' which advocates the principles of
Communism . Although its electoral support has greatly declined since 1980, it remains the largest party in France advocating communist views, and retains a large membership (second largest party after the
UMP ) and considerable influence in French politics. It is a member of the
European Left group.
The PCF was founded in
1920 by those in the
French Socialist Party (SFIO) who supported the
Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia and opposed the
First World War . Tensions within the Socialist Party had emerged in
1914 with the start of the First World War, which saw the majority of the SFIO take what left-wing socialists called a "
Social-chauvinist " line in support of the French war effort. At the SFIO congress in
Tours in
1920 , the left-wing faction (which obtained 3/4 of the votes) split away and formed the PCF, taking the party paper ''
L'Humanité '' with them. The PCF affiliated itself to the
Communist International (Comintern) (the PCF was then called the ''French Section of the Communist International'', SFIC). The newly created party was three times larger than the SFIO (120 000 members).
Although at first the PCF rivalled the SFIO for leadership of the French socialist movement, but many members were expelled from the party (including
Boris Souvarine ), and within a few years its support declined, and for most of the 1920s it was a small and isolated party. In the late 1920s the policies of the
Soviet Union under
Joseph Stalin , under which the PCF denounced the SFIO as "
Social Fascists " and refused any co-operation, kept the left weak and divided. Like all Comintern parties, the PCF underwent a process of "Stalinisation" in which a
Pro-Stalin leadership under
Maurice Thorez was installed in
1930 and all internal dissent banned. The rise of
Adolf Hitler and the destruction of the
German Communist Party led to a change of policy in the early 1930s.
During the late early 1930s,
Jacques Doriot , a member of the
Presidium Of The Executive Committee Of The Comintern from 1922 on, and from 1923 on Secretary of the French Federation of Young Communists, later elected to the French
Chamber Of Deputies came to advocate an alliance between the Communists and
Fascists with whom Doriot sympathized on a number of issues.
Doriot's defense of
Fascism split the Communist Party enough to alarm its leadership, which expelled
Doriot in 1934. Doriot and his followers soon formed fascist ''
Parti Populaire Français ''. Later, he was to become a fervent
Collaborationist and fought in
SS Division Charlemagne , a French SS unit.
During the 1930s the PCF grew rapidly in size and influence, its growth fuelled by the popularity of the Comintern's
Popular Front strategy, which allowed an
Alliance with the SFIO and the
Radicals to fight against fascism. The Popular Front won the
1936 elections, and
Leon Blum formed a Socialist-Radical government. The PCF supported this government but did not join it. The Popular Front government soon collapsed under the strain of domestic (financial problems, including
Inflation ) and foreign policy issues (the radicals were against an intervention in the
Spanish Civil War while the socialists and communists were in favour).
After the signing of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the outbreak of
World War II in
1939 , the PCF was declared a proscribed organisation. The PCF pursued an anti-war course during the early part of the
Second World War . Thorez deserted from the French Army and fled to the Soviet Union. When the
Germans invaded France, the PCF took a "neutralist" position, and initially collaborated with the German occupiers.
This position changed when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in
1941 . The party then took an active part in the
Resistance Movement , regaining credibility as an anti-fascist force. By
1944 the PCF had reached the height of its influence, controlling large areas of the country through the Resistance units under its command. Some in the PCF wanted to launch a revolution as the Germans withdrew from the country, but the leadership, acting on Stalin's instructions, opposed this and adopted a policy of co-operating with the Allied powers and advocating a new Popular Front government. Many well-known figures joined the party during the war, including
Pablo Picasso , who joined the PCF in
1944 .
With the liberation of France in
1944 , the PCF, along with other resistance groups, entered the government of
Charles De Gaulle , but were forced to quit the government of
Paul Ramadier in
1947 . Beginning in
1947 , the onset of the
Cold War led the PCF to pursue a more militant policy, alienating it from the SFIO and allowing the right-wing parties to stay in power. During the
Fourth Republic , as the SFIO and the Radicals declined, the PCF consistently received more votes than any other party, although they were not allowed to enter the government and did not want to.
The 1950s saw France's major overseas colonies, Vietnam and Algeria, rise up against French rule. In both cases, the French Communist Party, tended to critically support French imperialism, despite the fact that the Vietnamese and Algerian Communists were part of the liberation struggle in each country. While this stance by the PCF may have helped it retain widespread popularity in metropolitan France, it lost it credibility on the radical left.
During his scholarship to study radio engineering in Paris (from 1949 to 1953),
Pol Pot became a communist and joined the French Communist Party. He later implemented his communist ideas dating back to his Paris days as the leader of
Khmer Rouge and the dictator of
Democratic Kampuchea .
The second half of the 1950s was also marked by some dissatisfaction with the pro-Moscow line continuously pursued by party leaders. However, no definitive
Eurocommunist aspirations developed at the time. A major split occurred as
Maoists left during the late 1950s. Some moderate communist intellectuals, disillusioned with the actual policies of the
USSR , left the party after the violent surpression of
1956 Hungarian Revolution .
in
Paris , was designed by
Oscar Niemeyer and constructed between 1967 and 1972.]]
Thorez died in
1964 and was succeeded as PCF leader by
Waldeck Rochet . In
May 1968 widespread student riots and strikes broke out in France. The PCF supported the general strike but opposed the revolutionary student movement, which was dominated by
Trotskyists ,
Maoists and
Anarchists . The PCF also alienated many on the left by supporting the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia in August
1968 . Nevertheless, the PCF benefited from the left-wing mood of the period, and from the collapse of the socialists. Due to Waldeck Rochet's ill health,
Jacques Duclos was the candidate at thee
1969 presidential election. Duclos polled 21% of the vote, completely eclipsing the SFIO.
In
1970 ,
Roger Garaudy , a member of the Central Committe of the PCF from 1945 on, was finally expelled from the party for his revisionist tendencies. He had previously been criticised for his dialogue with proponents of Christian humanism. Later, Garaudy emerged as a major
Holocaust Denier .
In
1972 Waldeck Rochet was succeeded by
Georges Marchais , who had effectively controlled the party since 1970. Marchais began a moderate liberalisation of the party's policies and internal life, although dissident members, particularly intellectuals, continued to be expelled. The PCF entered an alliance with
François Mitterrand 's new
Socialist Party (PS), but broke it off again before the
1974 legislative elections, allowing the right to retain power.
Nominally the French communists supported Mitterand's candidacy in and too skilful in his strategy of rebalancing the Left on account of PCF. During Mitterand's term as PSF first secretary, the socialists re-emerged as the principal party of the left.
The PCF remained loyal to Moscow, disapproving of the
Eurocommunism of the
Italian Communist Party . The alliance with the PS was renewed for the
1981 elections, at which Mitterrand was elected President and the left won a large majority in the
National Assembly .
Under Mitterrand the PCF held ministerial office for the first time since
1947 , but this had the effect of locking the PCF into Mitterrand's reformist agenda, and the PCF's more moderate supporters drained away to the PS. The PCF also suffered from the rise of the
National Front , whose
Populist slogans appealed to many PCF voters. During the 1980s the PCF vote fell sharply.
The
Fall Of The Soviet Union in
1991 led to a crisis in the PCF, but it did not follow the example of some other European communist parties of dissolving itself or changing its name. In
1994 Marchais retired and was succeeded by
Robert Hue . Under Hue the party embarked on a process called ''la mutation''. ''La mutation'', which included the thorough reorganization of party structure and to move away from Leninist dogmas, was intended to vitalize the stagnant left and to attract non-affiliated leftists to join the party. But in effect it only resulted in increasing the pace of the decline of the party. Under
Lionel Jospin , the PCF again held ministerial offices from
1997 to
2002 . The party became riddled with internal conflict, as many sectors opposed ''la mutation'' and the policy of co-governing with the Socialists.
Hue only received 3.4% of the votes in the
2002 presidential elections. At the
2002 National Assembly elections, the PCF polled 4.8% of the vote and won 21 seats (out of 567). Eventually Hue had to resign, and in
2003 Marie-George Buffet took over the leadership of the party. Under Buffet the party embarked on a process of reconstruction, reversing some of the moves done during ''la mutation''.
On proposed European constitution issue, French communists fought alongside extreme left-wing groups and far-right militants of
National Front for 'no'.The victory of the 'No' in the
2005 French plebiscite on the Constitution of the
European Union , served as a major boost for the party. Under the referendum campaign the party was vitalized, with a resurgence of the work in the party cells. The PCF's retains some strength in the
Paris suburbs, in the industrial areas around
Lille , and in some areas of the south such as
Marseille .
The PCF publishes the following:
Traditionally, it was also the owner of the French daily ''
L'Humanité '' (Humanity). 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 the working class suburbs of
Paris .
During the 1970s, the PCF registered success with the children's magazine it founded, ''
Pif Gadget ''.
