abstract:Georges René Louis Marchais (7 June 1920, La Hoguette in Calvados – 16 November 1997, Paris) was the head of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1972 to 1994, and a candidate in the French presidential elections of 1981—in which he managed to garner only 15.34% of the vote, which was considered at the time a major setback for the party.