Back with Sandrine Etoa-Andegue on the significant events of the year. And it is those who have experienced them who tell them. Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labor, returns to the painful adoption of the pension reform.
February 18, 2023. In an electric atmosphere, the first round of debates on pension reform ends without a vote in the National Assembly, the deputies of rebellious France leave the hemicycle singing “We are here”, the anthem of the yellow vests. Facing them, Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labor, with a red face and trembling hands, expresses his anger: “Ladies and gentlemen rebellious deputies, you insulted me for two weeks, you sing, but you insulted me! Nobody cracked, nobody cracked and we’re here in front of you!”
>> Olivier Dussopt, the “punching-ball” minister on the front line on pension reform
“traitor”, “sold”, the unpopular pension reform has revived accusations of treason against the former socialist deputy, who went from the left to the right of the left, then who rallied Emmanuel Macron in 2017. The reform was adopted in the Senate thanks to the votes of the LAW. But back in the Assembly, faced with the uncertainty surrounding the vote of the Republicans, the Prime Minister uses article 49.3. The reform is therefore adopted without a vote of Parliament, under the boos of the rebellious who denounce “an unbearable passage in force”.
After these months of fever, Olivier Dussopt says to assume this reform, always rejected by a majority of French. This loyal Emmanuel Macron even feels strengthened. “Convinced, reinforced, solid… I can look up a lot of adjectiveshe explains. Pension reform is always a difficult reform. I had perhaps underestimated the violence of a certain number of attacks, in particular the most personal attacks, coming from rebellious France in particular. But it’s not because we underestimate the attacks, it’s not because sometimes it’s hurtful that we come out of it weakened.
The debates in both chambers were physical and psychological trials. “It took a very long time, both in the Assembly and in the Senate. The debates lasted two weeks in the Assembly. The second week I was sick, so I got teased a lot for my voice. I did the debates with good bronchitis and good laryngitis for the whole second week.”
Insults “not very pleasant”
Conspired by the left, for a reform “anti-social“, the minister in the front line, supported by the majority, did not crack. Even in the most difficult moments. “MThe vocal cords cracked, but not the rest. When people call you a murderer, it’s not pleasant. And when you play football with your head mimicking a decapitation, it’s not very pleasant. When you receive death threats, that’s not a big deal either, but it’s unfortunately part of political life. Today, when it comes to threats, insults thrown by people hidden behind the anonymity of social networks, hidden behind their keyboards and ultimately with a form of comfortable cowardice, it can be hurtful, but quite frankly, We take it for what it’s worth.”
“When these are insults uttered by parliamentarians, it pains me for the Republic, it pains me for the institutions.”
Olivier Dussoptat franceinfo
A shadow worker with a discreet personality, many French people discovered him during the review of the reform. He concedes it. “That, I can imagine. And I add that it is an opportunity and a responsibility. It is also a form of honor to participate in the government since 2017 and therefore to have the confidence of the President of the Republic and successive Prime Ministers. Since that date, I have been in charge of the Civil Service. I was Budget Minister. Sometimes I appeared. I also have this in mind in press articles, supposedly very technical, invisible, not very popular, like others. But it depends a lot on the portfolio.”
>> Suspicions of favoritism: the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt will be tried from November 27 to 30
He does not feel indebted to Emmanuel Macron for his ministerial posts – which François Hollande’s left did not offer him – but says he is lucky “to have the confidence of the President of the Republic and to be able to work in this way. And it is he who, in a way, allowed me, allows me to exercise these responsibilities. But the first accountability, when you go into a government, when you do politics at a national level, is to the country, to the general interest and to do what we think is best for the country. “. The treason trial since he joined Emmanuel Macron when he had just voted against the first budget of the new president, he sweeps it away. “This trial, I am vaccinated, and I am even more so when it is done by those who sold social democracy to Jean-Luc Mélenchon for a few seats in Parliament.
An interview with “Têtu” in full dispute
At the height of the social protest, he gave an interview to the magazine Stubbornduring which, among other things, he came out, “firstly because they offered me an interview and I consider that Stubborn is a political magazine, because Stubborn has a committed editorial staff. Those who imagine that Stubborn only deals with LGBT or LGBT community topics are seriously mistaken.” The opposition cried diversion. For Olivier Dussopt, his homosexuality was “neither a subject nor a secret”. And although it earned him a barrage of homophobic insults“to consider it a diversion, it was to make fun of the world. I replied, I had not done it before, I did it there. It does not matter. If there are some who have surprised by all this, it’s really that they had spent three years in a cave.”
In an interview, Olivier Dussopt had also sworn that he would not cover Paris Match cooking and that he considered that the place where he went on vacation was of no interest to anyone. He told us this time that he would take some time off in the South with friends. On the program: rest and disconnection.