Red But Badly Led?

Times have certainly changed for the French Communist Party (PCF), once Western Europe's most powerful Marxist movement. In last month's nationwide municipal elections, the party that prided itself on a strong local presence lost nearly a quarter of the towns and cities it previously controlled, including its only major city, Nîmes. The sharp decline in the PCF's fortunes is not only a risk to the party itself, but also to the hopes of France's ruling coalition of Socialists, Communists and Greens to carry the left to victory in legislative and presidential elections next year.

So with a mixture...

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