This is the first time since the 1958-1962 legislature that the Communists have been unable to form an exclusive group of Communist deputies. Such a group requires 20 deputies. The Communists have demanded that the threshold be lowered from 20 to 15 deputies to form a parliamentary group. The threshold had already been lowered in 1988 from 30 to 20.
The leadership of this group should be rotating every 20 months, the current leader is the Communist Jean-Claude Sandrier.
A similar group of leftist parties had been created in 1997, the Radical-Citizen-Green group composed of Left Radicals, MDC, and Green deputies.