Elisabeth Borne therefore receives today at Matignon the inter-union. What can we expect from this meeting? Renaud Dély’s editorial.
What should we expect from this meeting between the inter-union and Élisabeth Borne? Probably not much: just a few images, a contact, maybe doors slamming. But nothing more.
>> Elisabeth Borne’s meeting with the social partners: “We want to make the depth of the anger understood”, say the unions
The Prime Minister and the unions have not seen each other since the presentation of the pension reform, which dates back to January 10. It’s been ages. For three months, they hardly exchanged more than a few words on the telephone two or three times. And they don’t even agree on the agenda. The unions come to demand the withdrawal of the pension reform, and especially the abandonment of the postponement of the legal age to 64; Élisabeth Borne, she would like to turn the page, move on, to other projects… In short, we have experienced a warmer reunion.
A meeting that is more symbolic than effective?
So why did the two parties agree to meet? On the side of the executive, it is a question of extinguishing, a little, the little music which has been repeating for weeks that the government refuses to speak to the unions. There is an urgent need to be a little attentive, in particular to appease those who in the majority reproach the Borne-Dussopt tandem for having ignored the leader of the CFDT, Laurent Berger. As for the unions, they could not practice the “empty chair policy” after demanding an interview for weeks. And while unlike the Insoumis, they would have liked the debate on the reform to go to the bottom of the Assembly.
But the interview could be short, very short even. It’s the risk. Elisabeth Borne with her eye on the decision of the Constitutional Council expected next week, April 14. In the meantime, it will play the clock, try to open the discussion on a future labor law, and on the legislative transcription of the agreement concluded between the social partners about the sharing of value in the company.
The unions are not fooled and they could leave the meeting quickly, as soon as they see that the Prime Minister is not moving on her pension reform. The opportunity also to stage a new call for mobilization for the day of strikes and demonstrations scheduled for tomorrow. It will be the 11th in two and a half months, the unions find themselves much more often in the street than in Matignon.