- French presidential candidate
Fabien Roussel is promising to banhomework . - Roussel is a member of the National Assembly and head of the French Communist Party.
French Communist Party candidate Fabien Roussel on Friday called for traditional homework to be abolished nationwide.
Sitting well outside of the top candidates in the April presidential election, Roussel is averaging around 4% of support in 7th place, according to Politico Europe's rolling average.
While the voting age in France is 18, Roussel's mention of the proposal drew the visible approval of a child sitting in front of him in footage of a campaign rally he tweeted.
—Fabien Roussel (@Fabien_Roussel) February 18, 2022
"You will be free!" Roussel told the crowd in French, translated to English by Insider. "You'll be able to play sports, you'll be able to go to the theater, you can go see your friends, you can see your parents."
Since 2017, the French have enjoyed legal protections from answering work emails outside of office hours.
Traction has grown among pockets of the left for similar legislation for kids, and former President François Hollande took a stab at banning homework for elementary and middle school students at the beginning of his tenure in office from 2012 to 2017.
Hollande had little to show for his efforts, but the issue hasn't faded away.
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer has advocated for keeping homework at school and out of the house, arguing it exacerbates social inequities by depriving children of working parents from spending quality time together.
Roussel folded in his campaign slogan — "Le défi des jours hereux," or "the challenge of happy days" in English — to round out his crescendo with the crowd.
"Those are the happy days," he said, "also for kids!"