Saint-Raphaël's right-wing mayor, no stranger to media stunts, has vowed to 'put an end to the lies about the reality of communist totalitarianism.' In response, the French Communist Party and other left-wing groups denounced the 'revisionism of history.'
There was never one Communism, but many different ones.
Communism in Italy, for example, was only slightly related to the experience in the CCCP.
In fact this is historically a fatal flaw of communism, the user was kinda doomed the moment the revolution in Germany failed
Communists in Italy never held state power…
The PCI was official opposition in the '70s and ran the local governments of most of Italy’s large cities.