• The government presented its much-criticized pension reform bill last week.

  • This Tuesday, in Paris, several left-wing leaders held a first major meeting against the reform.

  • Preferring to forget the internal quarrels and the divisions, the member parties of the Nupes wish to appear united in an attempt to bend the executive.

Many red flags are waving this Tuesday evening at the Japy gymnasium, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.

Two days before the strike day against the pension reform, the left met for a first major joint meeting.

Olivier Faure (PS), Mathilde Panot (LFI), Fabien Roussel (PCF) and Marine Tondelier (EELV) wait together at the entrance to the hall before going on stage.

The flashes crackle, the smiles are sometimes strained, but the four leaders of Nupes strive to (over)play good friends in front of the cameras.

The objective of the evening is simple: forget the tensions and show that the left is united against the bill of Emmanuel Macron and his government, which will be debated in the coming weeks in Parliament.



“The front of the refusal is unanimous”

“The left is beautiful when it comes together to change the lives of the French.

Yes, there is another world, an alternative!

We fight together because we believe that another sharing is possible!

Let's move on, fight, join hands, don't give up!

», Launches Olivier Faure at the microphone, under the cheers.

“Retirement is a social choice.

If the people are so numerous to resist, it is because they know that another model is possible.

You are there because you think that the government is trying to save billions on the backs of workers, ”adds Mathilde Panot, the leader of the rebels in the National Assembly.

In the room, the activists who braved the 3 degrees in the evening warm up by applauding each projection.

Communist red mixes with eco-friendly green and rebellious purple.

A unit that does not surprise Julien Bayou, deputy for Paris and former boss of EELV.

“The front of the refusal is unanimous.

There is no debate, we had already talked about it and we had agreed before the legislative elections, "he said, recalling that retirement at age 60 at full rate was part of the common program of the coalition. left last June.

"We must first protect the achievements, and behind, we can make the plurality of our proposals heard," he adds.

"This unit is not about to break"

This Tuesday evening, the rancor of the presidential election, the programmatic differences, the divisions for the Europeans, the tensions around the Quatennens case, the purge at the head of LFI or the battle for the socialist throne have been put under the carpet.

The mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, a very critical opponent of Olivier Faure, is also very present in the bays.

A few hours before the big explanation, the left wants to show that it is taking a single step forward, confident about the mobilization to come.

"When you start the battle with 80% of French people who are against raising the starting age to 64, it's a great balance of power," smiles Mathilde Panot in front of journalists.

“There is union unity as never seen for more than fifteen years.

This unity is not about to break because it has only one objective: to have this brutal and unjust reform withdrawn.

»

Marine Tondelier, new patron saint of ecologists, is already thinking of amplifying the movement.

“We need a convergence of struggles.

Our challenge will be to bring in young people from the climate movement, who don't necessarily have this fight in mind because retirement seems far away to them.

“At the podium, at the very end of the meeting, the communist Fabien Roussel, who scratched the Nupes the same morning, adds a layer on the union, and calls for “shaking the walls of the Elysée” during the demonstration on Thursday.

A total unit... or almost.

The rebellious failed to convince their partners to march alongside them, without the unions, this Saturday, for their big "march for pensions". 

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  • Fabien Roussel

  • La France Insoumise (LFI)

  • Socialist Party (PS)

  • Europe Ecology The Greens (EELV)

  • French Communist Party (PCF)

  • Pension reform 2023

  • Government