While the strategic divisions in the National Assembly to oppose the government bill have come to light, the Nupes wants to show a united front against the pension reform. The alliance thus held a meeting in Amiens on Monday, focusing on the blocking of March 7.
Delicacies from the Amiens chocolate factory of Brigitte Macron’s family, this is what LFI deputy for the Somme François Ruffin distributed to mischievously welcome his comrades. Socialist leaders Olivier Faure and ecologist Marine Tondelier, PCF spokesperson Ian Brossat, Generations deputy Benjamin Lucas: leading officials made the trip to launch the new phase of Nupes meetings, which had started in January and slowed down with the holidays.
LFI’s obstruction strategy criticized
The objective was therefore to reunite a collective shaken by the examination of the reform in the Assembly. Ecologists, communists, socialists and even some rebellious had then criticized the strategy of obstruction mélenchoniste, who did not wish to arrive at the part of the text comprising the postponement of the retirement age to 64 years.
“There is no problem between the people who are here”, relativized Monday in front of the press François Ruffin, who was favorable, him, to hear the will of the inter-union to examine all the text. “We must not centralize attention on the National Assembly, that’s not where it’s happening,” he added, calling for a focus on the March 7 blockade announced by the unions.
For Olivier Faure, “disagreements”, “what happened in the Assembly is a debate that only interests us”, but not the French. “What interests people is not how many amendments made or articles studied, but how many years it will take to work,” added Ian Brossat. Who addresses hollow advice: “We have to come back to the heart of the debate. The inter-union also has something to teach us. Unions succeed in coming together”.
While the management of LFI wants “a new stage” of the Nupes, tied last May for the legislative elections, that the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau calls for an “act II” to overcome the quarrels, François Ruffin has planned for a long time term. “Beyond March 7, the issue is what political outlet we offer the country,” said the deputy, referring to the victories of the presidential election of 1981 or the legislative elections of 1997, which according to him occurred some time after victories of the social movement.
At the meeting, the speakers initially struggled to galvanize the 500 people massed in the Valenty-Haüy room. But the songs “We don’t let go” and “We are here” ended up resounding with force. Whether that will be enough to overcome the differences remains to be seen.