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Parti Communiste Français (Political party, France)

PCF

Flag of the PCF - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

Presentation of the PCF
Flag of the PCF
- Variant flags of the PCF
Older flags of the PCF

Former logo flags of the PCF
Front de Gauche variant flag
Former flags with hammer and sickle
Older local section flag

PCF-related flag
Mouvement des Jeunes communistes de France

See also:

Presentation of the PCF

The Parti Communiste Français (PCF - French Communist Party; Wikipedia, English and French editions) was founded in 1920 in Tours by those members of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) who supported the idea of joining the Communist International. The new party was originally named the French Section of the Communist International (Section française de l'Internationale communiste - SFIC) and the present name was adopted after the Communist International was disbanded in 1943.

Its important role in the Resistance during the Second World War brought it the nickname "party of the 75,000 executed people" (le parti des 75 000 fusillés). After the first post-war elections, it was in the government from January to May 1947, when it was forced into the opposition in order to secure Marshall Plan aid from the United States.
The party has remained in the opposition since then, except in 1981-1984 and 1997-2002, when it was the part of governments led by the Parti Socialiste. Since 2009, it is the part of the Front de Gauche (Left Front), an electoral coalition which it founded with the Parti de Gauche and several other leftist parties.

Tomislav Todorović, 26 August 2012

Flag of the PCF

The current logo was adopted in 2018.
The flag is red with the logo: photo (2022).

Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

Variant flags of PCF

Variant flags of the PCF, two versions - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

A variant with a thin white stripe at the fly and the campaign's motto was in use for the presidential election 2022. The texte reads : "FABIEN ROUSSEL 2022 - LE DÉFI DES JOURS HEUREUX - ÉLECTION
PRÉSIDENTIELLE" (meaning "The Challenge of Happy Days - Presidential election") : photo, photo.

The same pattern had been edited for the European elections 2019 with the name of the list's head: "IAN BROSSAT - ÉLECTIONS EUROPÉENNES - 25 MAI 2019": photo, photo.

Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

Older flags of PCF

Former logo flags of the PCF

Flag of the PCF, two versions - Images resp. by Tomislav Todorović, 25 April 2017 and Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

Another party flag (photo, Paris, 1 April 2007; photo, Paris, 4 September 2010; photo, Nice, 23 September 2010; photo, photo, Bourges, 12 October 2010, together with flags of the Parti de Gauche; photo, Marseille, 28 October 2010).
The flag might be described as the "banner of the logo", because its design is identical with that of the logo: large initials "PCF" in white, with the full name of the party inscribed beneath them in yellow, all on ared field.
The logo is still shown at the party website pages header, so the flag with that design is probably still in use.

Tomislav Todorović, 25 April 2017

There is too a variant of this flag, red with the logo surrounded by a white frame: photo (2018).
This family of logo was officialliy in use from 2004 to 2018.

Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

Front de gauche variant flag

Variant flag of the PCF with Front de gauche, 2015 elections - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

A variant of this former flag was observed combined with the Front de Gauche logo in 2015 for the departmental elections: photo from this page (2015)

Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

Former flags with hammer and sickle

Former flag of the PCF - Images by Tomislav Todorović, 25 April 2017

A new flag (photo, photo, photo [2014], photo [2015], photos [2016], photo, photo, photo), which has appeared several years ago, bears the large hammer and sickle, shaped almost identically as on the earlier flag, but with the sickle handle slightly separated from the blade, as if they were painted with two distinctive brush strokes. The party name is inscribed beneath the hammer and sickle, in the same typeface as on the flag charged with the inscriptions only, and there is also the abbreviation "PCF", in different typeface and much larger size, placed above the hammer head. All charges are gold, on red field.

Tomislav Todorović, 25 April 2017

Older flag of PCF and enlarged detail of the bottom of the flag - Images by Tomislav Todorović, 26 August 2012

The previous party flag was red, with the hammer and sickle and the party name, arranged along the bottom edge, all in gold (photo). The sickle has a very distinctive form, as if it was painted with a brush whose bristles were split into two
The flag is also shown on a photo shot in Paris, 1 April 2007. A photo of current flag was made on the same occasion (see above), which might suggest that the flag change was either under way or already finished not long ago.

Tomislav Todorović, 26 August 2012

Older local section flag of PCF

Older section flag of PCF - Image located by Tomislav Todorović, 26 August 2012

An even older flag still in use was photographed in Paris, 18 March 2012 (photo by Michael Evrard) .
The flag is red, with a five-pointed star above the hammer and sickle in center, surrounded with the party name inscribed above and words "Section de Gisors" (Gisors Section) inscribed beneath, all in gold. The shape of the charges and typeface employed look rather old-fashioned, which is better visible in larger-sized versions of the same photo; the flag looks rather well preserved, though.

Tomislav Todorović, 26 August 2012

PCF-related flag

PCF-related flag - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 26 August 2012

A flag in rainbow colors was used in Paris, 1 April 2007, together with the national flag and the previous party flag (photo, photo, photo, photo).
The colors are arranged in the following pattern: yellow, orange, red, green, blue, violet. This is clearly neither the Gay Pride / rainbow flag nor the Italian-style peace flag, both of which are used in France and sometimes appear together with the flags of the PCF.

The fact that the flag is related to the PCF is evident from the promotion material used in the campaign of Marie-George Buffet, national secretary of the party 2001-2010 and the presidential candidate in the 2007 elections (sticker , photographed in Paris, 18 April 2007; poster, photographed 20 April 2007; billboard, photographed in Paris, 18 June 2007). All these items show, as a common element of the design, a colored bar which only differs from the flag pattern in employing two shades of green and blue colors, which makes a total of eight colors. The flag design is obviously a simpler variant of this pattern, or the said bar is a more complex variant of the flag design, depending on which was created earlier.

Tomislav Todorović, 26 August 2012

Mouvement des Jeunes communistes de France

Flag of Mouvement des Jeunes communistes - left, current version; right, before 2015 - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025

The Mouvement des Jeunes communistes de France (MJCF), commonly called the "JC" (for Jeunesse Communiste, historically its first name), is the first political youth organisation of France, close to the French communist party. The MJCF is organised independently of the French communist party, deciding its laws, structure and leaders as well as its stances, while continuously engaging with the party about the actions and stances to take in keeping with a transformational vision of society.

Current flag: photo (2023), photo (2021)
Former flag with logo before 2015: photo (2015), photo (2014), photo (2013)

Olivier Touzeau, 10 March 2025