The general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), Laurent Berger, one of the main faces of the social movement against the pension reform of the Government of Emmanuel Macron, has announced this Wednesday that will leave the leadership in June of what is the majority union in France.
“This is not a whim or a decision dictated by current affairs,” explained Berger, 54, and CFDT general secretary since 2012, in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde.
“I simply want to respect the collective rules and a form of personal ethics, linked to the democratic functioning of the CFDT. The CFDT it’s not a party, nor a personal company: it is a collective organization. It is normal for it to be embodied in leaders, but also it is normal for it to be renewed“, he added.
[¿Cómo funciona el sistema de pensiones en Francia y por qué los franceses rechazan la reforma?]
Berger, who is also president of the European Trade Union Confederation with a mandate until this month of May, promised that does not leave due to fatigueoy argued that it is better to “pass the baton” when things are going well.
Regarding his possible successor, Berger revealed that he has proposed to Marylise Leon, deputy general secretary since 2018, and who thinks it is “important” that there are women at the head of the union organizations, something that already happened this year in the second largest union in France, the CGT, headed by Sophie Binet.
Regarding his departure in the midst of the social and political crisis unleashed by the pension reform, Berger admitted that he is aware that it is a “particular” period, but he specified that there is never a moment without an open front and that he is not “indispensable”.
[El principal líder sindical francés pone a España de ejemplo para acabar con la crisis: “Es un modelo”]
He also ruled out that his march will weaken the protest movement against the reform, which is at a crossroads after the validation of the norm by the Constitutional Council last week.
“The social movement is rich in workers who mobilize. I know that I played a role in the protest against retirement at 64 years old. And I have not finished”, he asserted, although he ruled out a future political career.
Big demonstration on May 1
For him, despite the fact that the pension reform already seems unstoppableit is not a “defeat of trade unionism”, who fought in the streets for three months and is still preparing a new big demonstration for May 1st.
“The fight is not over” He stressed, because not only that day of protest remains, but, at a legal level, the French Constitutional Council is still studying a demand to submit the reform to a referendum and the unions will also study “challenging” the application decrees before the administrative courts.
Regarding the strategy to follow, Berger trusts that the trade union movement will know how to stay united.
A “serious” and “demanding” partner
Shortly after the news broke, the government spokesman, Olivier Veransaid at a press conference that Berger has been a “serious” and “demanding” partner with which “important advances” were achieved.
The relationship between the CFDT and the Government, however, became cloudy throughout the pension crisis, in contrast to previous occasions where they had indeed reached understandings.
In it macronism It felt bad that Berger spoke of a democratic crisis and he was accused of not proposing solutions. In this context, Berger criticized, when announcing his departure, that the French president has “wiped his feet” with the workers.
