You don't really have that option in France on a national level because France isn't a PR system, except for the sufferance of the PS, the PCF would be even more marginal than it already is. The communists in France are more comparable to an organized pressure group within the Dem Party than to a genuine independent force, a much less powerful left wing version of the DLC if you will. In Germany, however, you're right.

 In any case your examples point to a separate problem for   would be economically left wing voters in Europe - i.e. that their political representatives aren't able to bring themselves to fully get over their longstanding belief that left wing economic policies have to come with repression and dictatorship.