2023-04-19 16:02:08
A page turns on the union front. Three weeks after the departure of Philippe Martinez at the head of the CGT, Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT, announced, in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde this Wednesday, to leave his post on June 21. Twelve years after taking the helm of the first trade union organization in France. “Activists need to understand one thing: we are passing through and it is better to pass on the baton when we are well launched”, he justified, acknowledging a “decision charged with emotion”. The leader has appointed Marylise Léon, current number 2, as his successor.
This departure is not a surprise. Laurent Berger had warned that he would not complete his mandate. He even says in the interview that he intended to hand over in June 2022, during the last congress. The trade unionist, cement of the inter-union opposed to the pension reform, finally chooses to leave the place while the challenge against the pension reform has not subsided.
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“I realize that this is a special time. But who tells you that it won’t be the same in October? Or in June? I have already pushed back a year, because it was a special period, ”he justified to World. Laurent Berger has obviously taken care to warn his counterparts of the inter-union of the formalization of his departure. “He told us very shortly before the publication of the interview,” says a leader.
“She was well prepared”
Marylise Léon, Deputy Secretary General, will therefore take over the reins. This Breton, mother of two children, becomes the second woman at the head of the CFDT after Nicole Notat (1992-2002). Holder of a DESS in chemistry, she joined the CFDT in 2003. Aged 46, she rose through the ranks, little by little, from federal secretary of the CFDT Chimie Énergie to national secretary in 2014 then number 2 of the organization in 2018.
“It seems to me to be a choice in perfect continuity with Laurent Berger, rebounds François Hommeril, general secretary of the CFE-CGC. She seems to have been trained for years in the pure tradition of the CFDT. “He is a very intelligent and very competent person, hello Frédéric Souillot, secretary general of FO. We are already used to working with her. »
And for good reason. Since the beginning of the social movement against the pension reform, Marylise Léon has participated in all the meetings of the inter-union. In the “head square” of the demonstrations, she was always placed next to Laurent Berger. “She was even present in the meetings between numbers 1. She was well prepared and knows the files”, slips a union official.
“It will not change anything for the inter-union”
However, could his personality and his relationship with Sophie Binet, new general secretary of the CGT, change the face of the intersyndicale? “From the beginning, the duo formed by Laurent Berger and Philippe Martinez (“long-time friends”, remarked a leader) cements the sacred union and gives the ” the of social protest.
“Everyone will try to find this duo by watching the first steps of Marylise Léon and Sophie Binet. But we must not forget that the relationship between Berger and Martinez has been built over the years! notes François Hommeril. “A page is turned, and something new is going to be built,” continues Frédéric Souillot. But that will not change anything for the intersyndicale. Our unity is not based on a question of personalities. On the unit press releases, there is not the photo of Sophie Binet, Laurent Berger or Marylise Léon, but the logo of the organizations. »
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