Guest of France Bleu Picardie, François Ruffin, deputy Picardie Debout, affiliated with France Insoumise, from the Somme, returned to Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Amiens this Monday morning: “It’s Santa Claus in the countryside: I think he’s coming to give you a small distribution of gifts five months before the presidential election. So, it is obvious that we are receiving a president-candidate“, details the elected Picard.
France Bleu Picardie: According to you, Emmanuel Macron did enough for Amiens, for Picardy during his five-year term?
François Ruffin, deputy Picardie Debout de la Somme: He came to Amiens regularly, he came to the Whirlpool site three times: three times he lied to the workers, three times it was a mess. I do not know if it is desirable that he does more. Anything that can be taken for the territory, we take it. But for me, his engagement during the 2017 presidential campaign on Amiens was Whirlpool saying there would be no approval of the appeasement plan. Finally, there was an approval of convenience which was canceled even, but without consequences since the redundancy is not valid. But now, so, I look at me in particular President Macron in the light of the candidate Macron who came to Amiens centrally on the Whirlpool file.
France Bleu Picardie: But what more could he have done for you? For Amiens and its territory?
Francois Ruffin : So that doesn’t make me younger, but I remember Jacques Chirac’s visit in 1996. And when Chirac came to Amiens, there were crowds. The streets were jubilant. When Emmanuel Macron comes to Amiens, it’s a big void. There are a few demonstrations here and there, but there isn’t much. And it’s a sort of mineral loneliness where things take place behind closed doors, with very organized communication plans. I find that it says something of a non-existence because you say in relation to Amiens, but it is his city of birth: it should be Chirac power 10 when it comes. What strikes me is this kind of loneliness. There is not much going on, so we are trying to organize an anchoring in a territory that is quite superficial and artificial.
France Bleu Picardie: You will be on the sidelines of this visit. You announced it this Sunday evening on your Twitter account, the former employees of Whirlpool will be received by Emmanuel Macron. It was not planned. Do you know a little more about what will be said?
Francois Ruffin : It will take stock of an industrial disaster with three successive stages. Now there are no more Whirlpool employees at the old site. But it was necessary to insist very strongly, whereas when he had come two years ago, he had said: “I will be back in a year at most“. And there, it will take place behind closed doors [la rencontre, initialement prévue en préfecture a finalement été délocalisée dans un café, ndlr], that is to say the files that annoy Emmanuel Macron. It is handled in a small committee, that. The former employees will unpack their bag and say their depression. I am thinking in particular of the union delegates, who will their feeling of having been let down, of having managed on their own.
France Bleu Picardie: Are they going to ask for something concrete?
Francois Ruffin : I doubt. You know, there is a huge weariness when you undergo three successive layoffs, when there are three times buyers that three times, you are told. This time it’s the right one and three times you are fired, you are smashed up with an experience like this.
France Bleu Picardie: Another delegation which will try this time to meet Emmanuel Macron. They are the midwives of the Victor Pauchet clinic. They have been on strike for a month now. The maternity ward has been closed since Thursday evening. Again, is it really useful to try to challenge Emmanuel Macron like that, straight off?
Francois Ruffin: _I_e think that everything should be done so that the ear of the president is listening to people. In Picardy, it is the Abbeville hospital which is partly on strike, it is the same for Amiens, Creil or Senlis. In caregivers where it generally overflows. Why ? This is central to the Pauchet clinic file: they feel they are doing their job poorly. They leave expectant mothers alone for hours because they have a caesarean section to deal with. And so, they have the anguish of doing their job poorly. I think that everything must be done so that the authorities are challenged by this feeling of unease which is present today in the hospital, which means that there are resignations in series, which means that we do not know not if the services will be provided naturally. Normally this winter and probably not at all, there is a person from the Compiègne hospital who needed an emergency in intensive care. The nurse had to call 21 services in Hauts-de-France to find a place in emergency resuscitation. It is to say how one has a hospital which is today under water. And I regret that Emmanuel Macron did not go to Amiens hospital, Abbeville hospital, Creil hospital or Senlis hospital to say that he was on the front line.
France Bleu Picardie: Will you be with the midwives this morning?
Francois Ruffin: I am by their side. I am alongside the carers who went to the Elysee Palace to deliver a letter to the President of the Republic a month ago now, who have no answer for the moment to ask that they have a decent income and normal hours. I try to push people’s voices to try to nab a piece of the ear of power.