Something new at FO.

Frédéric Souillot was elected Friday at the head of Force Ouvrière.

This 54-year-old reformist “metalworker”, member of the confederal office since 2015, won 87.68% of the votes cast.

He was most recently in charge of the organization, the legal sector and the personnel.

In his application letter, Frédéric Souillot claims to have joined FO in 1994, to have created his union at Schlumberger in Dijon in 1995, and to have joined FO Métaux in 2008 as federal secretary in charge of steel and base metals.

Beyond his characteristic "look" - brush cut, horseshoe mustache, ear rings - Frédéric Souillot is little known outside FO, especially since he refused requests from the press before his designation.

Some detractors willingly describe a man of apparatus, aware of all the mysteries and secrets of the organization, propelled to the head of FO thanks to a strategic alliance between the steelworkers and certain Trotskyists, however far apart ideologically.

“He is an activist from the base”

"He's a field activist, not an apparatchik," challenges Confederal Secretary Michel Beaugas, who knows him well.

“Just like me, he started in his company union.

He knows the field well, and since he joined the confederation he knows the organization well, but that's his job!

“, he underlines.

In the spans of the Congress, the railwayman Sébastien Poentis shares this vision: “He is an activist from the base who can understand us well.

He has climbed the ranks of the union, he understands all the workings of it, ”he told AFP.

Some are worried about Frédéric Souillot's ability to “embody” the function, such as Christian Grolier, his opponent until Wednesday – he finally withdrew his candidacy.

“Given his career, I find it difficult to imagine him in the mandate of secretary general”, he said in April to a few journalists, pointing to the lack of experience “of files, of the press, of discussions at Matignon” .

“I am convinced that he will play well.

[…] It will come, everyone said about me, he is austere, we do not know him, answers Yves Veyrier.

It's teamwork.

[…] We are not necessarily alone on the subjects.

“For Frédéric Homez, boss of FO Métaux, “these are false pretexts”.

"Dossiers are learned and we work on them," he told AFP.

Is it macron compatible?

Last subject of concern for the opponents of Frédéric Souillot: his line, while metallurgy is the spearhead of the "reformist" current of the union, reputed to be more right-wing than the "Trotskyist" and "anarchist" currents, and that Frédéric Souillot has the support of Jean-Claude Mailly, the former secretary general who has approached Macronie.

“A class struggle candidate, a place struggle candidate!

“Launched Valérie Plouchard, from Fnec FP-FO (education and culture), to summarize the battle between Grolier and Souillot.

Fabrice Lerestif (anarchist) also awoke the torpor of the delegates by affirming Tuesday: “I am not gathered behind the direction of the federation of the metallurgy.

I am not gathered behind Jean-Claude Mailly, honorary member of the federation of metallurgy and Macron-compatible ”.

Frédéric Homez answered him sharply at the podium on Wednesday.

"We hear a lot of things, 'We don't need a support union, we need a struggle union.'

But my comrades, it takes both,” he replied.

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