In Saint-Raphaël, on the French Riviera, the mayor has taken an unusual step: he plans to inaugurate a monument in his town in tribute to the victims of communism. The initiative has sparked outrage from the French Communist Party (PCF), which believes that the time for repentance has not yet come.
The mayor, Frédéric Masquelier, a member of the centre-right Les Républicains party, says he is very proud of his initiative, which is the first in France. With this gesture, he intends to “break a taboo of memory,” namely the responsibility of communist ideology for the deaths of 100 million victims throughout the last century. To date, monuments commemorating the victims of communism are all located in former communist countries.
The Communist Party has made its disapproval known, arguing that this monument has no place, since the only French “victims” of communism were “the Nazis and their collaborators.” The 10,000 French soldiers tortured in communist camps after the defeat at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina, to name but a few, will certainly appreciate being considered “Nazis and collaborators.”
The PCF’s objection is meaningless, since the ambition behind the monument, which is to be inaugurated on August 23rd, is not purely French and local but universal, to honour the memory of all victims of communism throughout the world.
The PCF enjoys a largely overrated aura in the French political landscape, which it justifies by its crucial participation in the French Resistance movement and the Liberation of the country in 1944-1945. The PCF does not like to be reminded that this participation was late and, above all, entirely dependent on orders received from Moscow. At the time of the German invasion of France in June 1940, L’Humanité, the party’s official newspaper, was still celebrating the German-Soviet pact, and the editorial staff was negotiating with the National Socialist authorities to allow the newspaper to continue publication despite the occupation.
Bolstered by the symbolic legacy of its active role in the Resistance during the second half of the conflict, the French Communist Party has never wanted to change its name or admit its mistakes in supporting Stalinism. Seeing the responsibility of Marxist ideology for the deaths of millions of innocent people played out in the public arena is therefore inevitably very unpleasant for its members. Julien Picot, a PCF official in the south, echoes the age-old and facile distinction between ideology and its leaders. “It wasn’t communism that killed; it was dictators,” he told the press, rejecting any “amalgamation” between communist ideology and the authoritarian regimes that espoused it.
Masquelier, for his part, deplores the inability of part of the Left, even today, to face up to the crimes of communism: “Every time the communists have been in power, it has ended in an authoritarian regime,” he declared, dismissing shenanigans about the supposed dignity of French communism or the exact nature of the victims.
He intends to give the inauguration of his monument all the pomp and circumstance expected. Several media and political figures are expected to attend, such as historian Virginie Girod and journalist Vincent Hervouët, whom L’Humanité bitterly points out are both contributors to the CNews channel. His monument will complement two other memorials, one in memory of the martyrs of the Resistance—which has already aroused the ire of the PCF, which considers that the ‘sacrifice’ of the communist resistance fighters has not been sufficiently honoured—and the other in memory of the Righteous Among the Nations. When questioned by a local radio station about the lack of commemoration for the victims of colonisation, the mayor stood by his decision, which a local Communist councillor described as “a pathetic political move to please the Rassemblement National.” The RN won 40% of the vote in Saint-Raphaël in the last elections.
The PCF, supported by La France Insoumise (LFI), called for demonstrations on the day of the inauguration. Unfortunately, ideologues die hard, and their bad faith has undeniable longevity.
