Groupe communiste
The Groupe communiste ( German Communist Faction ), COM for short , was a communist faction in the French National Assembly that existed from 1962 to 2002 . In its 40-year history, it consisted largely of members of the French Communist Party (PCF) as well as representatives of the Réunions Communist Party (PCR), the Guadeloupe Communist Party (PCG), the Convention for a Progressive Alternative (CAP) and individual MPs .
history
1958–1973: beginnings and founding
Following the French parliamentary elections in 1962, a communist parliamentary group emerged for the first time in the Fifth Republic . Despite an increase of only 2.9 percentage points in comparison to the parliamentary elections in 1958, the PCF was able to gain 31 seats due to the majority vote and thus more than quadruple its parliamentary representation. In its first legislative term, the group had a total of 41 members, all of whom belonged to the French Communist Party , which achieved an election result of 21.8 percent. In the next parliamentary elections in 1967, the PCF was able to almost double its number of MPs with a slight increase of 0.7 percentage points. With 22.5 percent and 71 MPs, the French Communist Party achieved its best percentage result in parliamentary elections after the Fourth Republic . In addition to the members of the PCF, Paul Lacavé from the Guadeloupe Communist Party (PCG) was the first member of the parliamentary group to come from overseas. With the non-party Pierre Cot it had a total of 73 members. In the early parliamentary elections in 1968, the PCF lost over half of its MPs with 38, despite a loss of only 2.5 percentage points due to the majority vote. Pierre Cot from Paris was not re-elected either. Only the PCG with Paul Lacavé was able to hold its parliamentary representation after the early elections. With 34 MPs, the communist faction had reached a low point in its history.
1973–1997: ups and downs
In the following parliamentary elections, however, it was always able to win new members, before the faction reached its highest level in the Fifth Republic in 1978 with 86 members . As in 1962 and 1973, it again consisted only of MPs from the French Communist Party , which achieved an election result of 20.5 percent. It was only after the parliamentary elections in 1981 that Ernest Moutoussamy from the PCG, a member of the parliamentary group from outside the PCF, joined the National Assembly. Five years later, in 1986, Paul Vergès and Elie Hoarau of the Communist Party of Réunions (PCR) were followed by two more. However, this could not prevent the Communist faction from losing all MPs in the following years due to the high loss of votes by the French Communist Party before it had shrunk to 23 MPs in 1993. After the parliamentary elections in 1993 it consisted of 21 members of the PCF as well as Ernest Moutoussamy, who had since left the Guadeloupe Communist Party , a member of the Progressive Democratic Party of Guadeloupe (PPDG) and Jean-Pierre Brard of a member of the Convention for a progressive one Alternative (CAP), who was initially elected as a member of the French Communist Party , but left the PCF during the legislative period. The PCR MPs had left the parliamentary group in 1987 as a result of the dispute between the French Communist Party and the Réunions Communist Party and have since been non-attached MPs in the National Assembly. After the parliamentary elections in 1997, they joined forces with the French Greens , the Republican MDC and the left-wing liberal PRS to form the Radicaux, Citoyens et Verts ( German Radicals, Citizens and Greens ) faction .
1997–2007: end and dissolution
The communist parliamentary group itself was able to achieve its last result for the time being in 1997 with 36 members, 34 of whom belonged to the PCF and one member each from the PPDG and the CAP. After the parliamentary elections in 2002, the parliamentary group dissolved. The deputies of the French Communist Party founded with the deputies of the Convention for a progressive alternative , Jean-Pierre Brard, and the nonparty Jacques Desallangre the Groupe Communiste et républicain ( dt. Communist and Republican faction ), included that 21 MPs before Also consider these Dissolved in 2007 as a result of the poor performance of the PCF and the resulting insufficient number of MPs. The MPs of the French Communist Party and the CAP MP, Jean-Pierre Brard, joined forces with MPs from the French Greens , the Réunions Communist Party and the Martinique Independence Movement (MIM), as well as the two non-party members Jacques Desallangre and Maxime Gremetz, who meanwhile left the PCF to form the technical group Gauche démocrate et républicaine ( German Democratic and Republican Left ), which comprises 24 MPs.
MPs
| territory | Member party |
 France
|
Communist Party of France (PCF) |
|
France
|
Progressive Alternative Convention (CAP) |
 Guadeloupe
|
Communist Party of Guadeloupe (PCG) |
|
Guadeloupe
|
Progressive Democratic Party of Guadeloupe (PPDG) |
|
Reunion Island
|
Communist Réunions Party (PCR) |