Presidential campaign in France: Fabien Roussel, a "phantom parliamentary assistant", according to Mediapart

Fabien Roussel, PCF candidate for the 2022 presidential election. © Aurélien Devernoix / RFI

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2 mins

A few days ago the press was talking about the “Roussel moment” in the campaign.

The communist candidate Fabien Roussel, carried by his outspokenness, some controversies orchestrated on social networks and a campaign that dusts off the PCF, seemed to live a small dynamic.

But the investigative media Mediapart published an investigation on Sunday which suspects the communist leader of having been paid as a collaborator with funds from the National Assembly, when he was in fact working for his party.

Presumed innocent, Fabien Roussel has not reacted, for the moment, to the publication of the article.

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A “phantom parliamentary assistant”.

This is how Mediapart sums up Fabien Roussel's five years as an employee of a communist deputy from the north of France.

According to the investigative media, from May 2009 to June 2014, the communist leader was paid 3,000 euros net per month by the elected Jean-Jacques Candelier to help him, full-time, in his prolific parliamentary task.

assures that he fulfilled a “very political role”. 

Problem: Médiapart affirms that the collaborator Roussel did not work at the permanent office of the deputy, that former colleagues do not know how to say what he was doing, and that the one who is today a presidential candidate has not provided them with any proof. tangible result of his work with the member.

At that time, from June 2010, Fabien Roussel was also at the head of the powerful Northern Federation of the Communist Party.

“As an activist and volunteer,” he assured the online newspaper.

But for Mediapart, several documents and testimonies support the idea that he was paid from public funds, when he was actually working for his party.

Presumed innocent, Fabien Roussel has not reacted, for the moment, to the publication of the article.

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: Fabien Roussel continues to imprint his mark on the left in the presidential campaign

During the 2017 presidential election, the campaign of the right-wing candidate, François Fillon, collapsed after press revelations about the employment of his wife Penelope, whom justice suspects of being fictitious.

Two other files, concerning parliamentary assistants (at the level of the European Parliament) of the

and

are currently under investigation,

further recalls : the judges suspect these parties of having paid several European assistants while they were working essentially for their party, which would amount to embezzlement of public funds. 

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• France

• French politics

• Fabien Roussel

• Presidential France 2022