the CGT “calls for a popular surge in the face of a democracy in danger”

The CGT, CFDT, UNSA, FSU and Solidaires are calling for demonstrations this weekend.

The general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, “calls for a popular surge”, Tuesday June 11 on France Inter. His union and four others (CFDT, UNSA, FSU and Solidaires) are calling for demonstrations this weekend in the face of the risk of a victory for the far right in the early legislative elections of June 30 and July 7. “Our Republic and our democracy are in danger,” alerted the inter-union in a press release.

“We need as many people as possible” in the streets. “I call on all people, for whom the climate is anxiety-provoking and who are worried about the future of the country, to come and demonstrate this weekend”insists Sophie Binet on France Inter. “It’s always useful to demonstrate,” assures the general secretary of the CGT. “It is because there have been large mobilizations in Germany that the German extreme right has retreated at the polls. It is because there have been very large mobilizations in Spain with union unity that the “the extreme right has not come to power and on the contrary, it is the most left-wing government in Europe”she elaborates.

Sophie Binet recalls that the CGT called on Monday for a “popular Front”because “the context takes us back to that of the 1930s where, to prevent the German scenario – namely the arrival of Hitler to power – from occurring in France, the CGT called for a popular front”. Then, “thanks to the unity of the left forces, we had one of the greatest sequences of social conquests in the country”, she emphasizes on France Inter.

Last March, for the 80th anniversary of the program of the National Council of the Resistance, Sophie Binet signed a preface to the reissue of Happy Days. She wrote: “The far right has never been so close to power. It’s a quarter to midnight.” Now, she believes that it is “five to midnight”. The leader of the CGT wrote “that while thinking that we were on the 2027 scale” since “no one imagined that this could be a prospect in three weeks.” She believes that the “decision of the President of the Republic to dissolve the National Assembly under these conditions is totally irresponsible”because “organizing legislative elections in less than three weeks and on the eve of the Olympic Games is extremely dangerous”. According to her, Emmanuel Macron “will remain the president of chaos.”

All the more, she adds, that‘”we are in this situation because the National Rally is thriving on the ashes left behind by neo-liberal policies”. While the RN vote is spreading across all social categories, the CGT has “decided to increase the time for debate with employees and to provide factual elements”. Sophie Binet repeats that it “There is no worse enemy for the world of work than the extreme right” because “the National Rally defends the abolition of social contributions and therefore the end of our Social Security model: unemployment, retirement or health insurance, for example”. In Parliament, the RN “has always voted against advances in labor law.”

However, three FO unions, the CFE-CGC and the CFTC are not calling for demonstrations this weekend against the far right. “It’s not a surprise because we have different union cultures and histories”, reacts Sophie Binet. She points out that in 2002, after the qualification of the National Front candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the second round of the presidential election, “They are almost the same people who did not call for demonstrations”. But she wants to say that on Tuesday afternoon the eight unions will be “together at a press conference” For “scandal”A “scandalous hold-up” on the issue of unemployment insurance. The government “who dares to dissolve the National Assembly, announces that he is implementing, in a very authoritarian manner, the reform by decree while there is no longer any democratic control by Parliament”she denounces.

On another subject, Sophie Binet is not convinced by Raphaël Glucksmann’s proposal. The head of the PS-Place publique list, which obtained 13.8% in the Europeans, proposed that the former general secretary of the CFDT Laurent Berger become Prime Minister in the event of a victory for the left in the legislative elections of June 30 and 7 July. “It really seems like an idea out of the hat. It doesn’t meet the needs of the moment. The need of the moment is to meet the aspirations of the world of work.”comments the boss of the CGT.