While a reshuffle is to be announced this Thursday afternoon, Elisabeth Borne was confirmed on Monday. For the CGT, if the Head of State does not find another Prime Minister, it is the symbol of “the impasse in which he locked himself with his relentlessness in wanting to force through this reform” pensions.
“I see that Emmanuel Macron cannot find another Prime Minister“, estimates the secretary general of the CGT Sophie Binet, Thursday July 20 on franceinfo, while Élisabeth Borne was confirmed in her post as head of government, Monday July 17, and that a reshuffle must be announced in the afternoon of Thursday July 20.
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“The question”according to the general secretary of the CGT, is not to change interlocutor to obtain social progress, but rather to “do what policy”. Sophie Binet”notes that Emmanuel Macron cannot even find other governments and other Prime Ministers. Which shows the impasse in which he locked himself with his relentlessness in wanting to force through this reform” retirements.
From Moûtiers in Savoie, starting point of the 18th stage of the Tour de France, Sophie Binet believes that “if Emmanuel Macron has taken a little lead on the first part of the Tour, if we stay on the sporting metaphor, he is charred, he no longer has a team, he is alone. Cycling is a team sport”. However, the head of the CGT boasts of the fine results of her union which “has been strengthened since the CGT has won 40,000 new union members. The end of the stage will last four years and it will be extremely hard for the government. And we are continuing on the issue of pensions, on the issue of wages and on the environmental issue, in particular”.
The CGT calls for a “budgetary commitment” from the government
Regarding the CGT’s demands on “public hospital”the syndicate “got no response” and a new Minister of Health with this reshuffle would not change anything, according to Sophie Binet. “What is needed is a budgetary commitment”hammers the head of the CGT. “And there, what is very worrying is that on the 2024 budget, it is very tight, with violent demands for a reduction in the budget, while we are simply telling ourselves that we have to look at public aid to businesses. Each year, 200 billion are given to businesses without compensation, a third of the state budget. So if we want to save money, that’s where we have to cut. Not in the budget for health, education and culture”.
On the issue of rail freight, Sophie Binet asserts that“a meeting is going to be organized”. The secretary general of the CGT will be on September 1 near Valenciennes to “sustain” the employees of the railway equipment specialist Valdunes in Trith-Saint-Léger, in the North, a company released by its Chinese shareholder in early May. “We demand that the State play its role and guarantee by public order this company which is the only one in France to manufacture train axles, train wheels, when we need more trains. The orders exist, it would be a scandal to close this historical French know-how”.
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Regarding the Tour de France, Sophie Binet wanted to salute this “great popular moment, the only high-level sport where you can have so many audiences, for free and in a very open way, with a mix of audiences, populations. And that’s very important because it also embodies the social mix that must be strengthened, reconstructed, regained”.