The once mighty French Communist Party is a shell of its former self. What happened to its mass base? The French Communist Party (PCF) once commanded the loyalty of millions. Buoyed by its role in the resistance to Nazi occupation, the party won over a quarter of the vote in postwar legislative elections and was a permanent fixture in French life. In much of Northern Europe, the working class owed its allegiance to the parties of social democracy. In France, the Communists had that honor. Though the party today can still claim the country’s third largest membership, its decline has been dramatic. The bulk of opposition to France’s political establishment has been generated from the Right, in the form of the xenophobic populism of the National Front. We spoke to sociologist Julian Mischi about the Communist Party’s decline in this new environment and how it can reconnect with a largely lost social base.