Jean-Luc Mélenchon has been promising a “great march against the high cost of living” since July. Problem: for the moment, the unions do not want to go there. And the project is slipping away. Jean-Rémi Baudot’s political brief
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The idea was however simple: to organize a big demonstration, massive, united. A meeting of the forces of the left. Except that this plan, imagined by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has lead in the wing. On the left, the leaders of Nupes are reserved, as for the unions, they are almost all against this project. In short, it gets stuck.
But what is the problem with this “great march against the high cost of living“ ? What the partners of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and especially the unions denounce is the political stranglehold exercised by the rebellious leader on this mobilization. It seems to say “me in front and you behind”. And the unions do not appreciate the method. The tension is particularly palpable with Philippe Martinez, the boss of the CGT, where we explain “not wanting to mix the genres between politics and unions”. For a question of independence and readability, the CGT will wait until the last moment to say whether or not it joins the processions.
It must be said that the unions have already planned two days of mobilization on September 22 and 29, and they have the impression of stealing the spotlight by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. At the CFDT, Laurent Berger’s entourage even denounces “manipulation”.
So one question remains: can this march see the light of day in this context? This weekend at the Fête de l’Humanité, Jean-Luc Melenchon – who challenged Fabien Roussel from a distance on the question of unemployment benefits – hammered on stage that he would organize this march “whatever happens”. The date of October 15 is even advanced by some of his relatives. And that should not calm the situation: the socialists and ecologists remain cautious because they do not want to rob the unions. For his part, the communist Fabien Roussel was very hostile to the way the Insoumis seem to want to keep control of the social protest against Emmanuel Macron.
In an attempt to appease the spirits, a meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 12 at 6:30 p.m. in video with the executives of Nupes and the unions. This is the third meeting on the subject. But basically, this question of the “great march” is one more example of the tensions that we observe within the left.