The congress will open Monday in the agglomeration of Clermont-Ferrand, until Friday. About a thousand delegates are expected, in a particular context, that of a mobilization against the pension reform that has rebounded after more than two months of protest, and in which the CGT is at the forefront.

"The delegates will arrive with four, five, six weeks of mobilization, strikes, daily initiatives (...) It's going to be a great moment," said Marie Buisson, secretary general of the Ferc (Federation Education, Research and Culture), a candidate nominated by the outgoing leadership.

The secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, is expected to march one last time under this cap Tuesday in the streets of Clermont.

Like the other trade unions, the CGT has regained color thanks to the mobilization against the postponement of the retirement age to 64 years, carried by an inter-union united around the duo that Mr. Martinez forms with the leader of the CFDT, Laurent Berger.

But during his eight years in office, the CGT lost its place as the leading trade union organization to the CFDT, a "failure" he acknowledged in Le Monde on Wednesday.

The secretaries general of FO, Laurent Berger (l), of the CGT Philippe Martinez (c), Marie Buisson (2nd d), candidate for his succession, and Valérie Petit-Lesage (r), during a demonstration against the pension reform, on March 23, 2023 in Paris © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP / Archives

Above all, Mr. Martinez bequeaths an organization deeply divided, to the point that the outcome of the congress is uncertain in the eyes of many union officials as well as outside observers.

"Disaggregation"

The candidate endorsed by the management, Marie Buisson, is challenged by Céline Verzeletti, co-secretary general of the UFSE (Federal Union of State Trade Unions).

Without being officially a candidate, the latter has the support of several powerful federations of the CGT, including those of railway workers or energy, which consider that it "seems to meet the conditions for a broad agreement, a gathering of all the organizations of the CGT, and the possibility of collective work" within the union's leadership bodies.

Céline Verzeletti, candidate to succeed CGT General Secretary Philippe Martinez, on March 22, 2023 in Paris © JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives

The general secretary of the Bouches-du-Rhône Departmental Union, Olivier Mateu, has also joined the ranks, but his candidacy does not meet the criteria defined by the CCN (National Confederal Committee, the "parliament" of the union) and should not succeed.

Ms. Buisson's opponents accuse her of low notoriety, of not having led an emblematic struggle, and of having become known above all for having represented the CGT within the collective "Never again" (renamed the Ecological and Social Alliance), which brings together unions, NGOs and associations, with the desire to tackle environmental and social issues head-on.

Several large industrial federations do not find themselves in the orientations of "Never again", especially on nuclear power, and an even broader front criticizes the lack of democratic debate within the CGT on this alliance created in March 2020.

With Le Monde, Mr. Martinez welcomed that the CGT has "progressed" on "opening up to other actors of civil society".

He also argued that the CGT had been able to "clarify (its) relations with the political parties", by clearly affirming its leadership on the social movement, in the face of the hegemonic wills of the rebellious France.

"I do not want a party to be in the stands, at the meetings of the CCN, to tell us what we have to do," he said, targeting LFI, and by extension Ms. Verzeletti, who is close to it.

The votes on the activity report (Tuesday) and the policy paper (Thursday) should make it possible to see more clearly on the balance of power. In the end, it is the CCN that will decide, Friday morning.

With AFP, a connoisseur of social issues is alarmed by the state of "disintegration" of the CGT and the aftermath, whoever wins.

"Céline Verzeletti, if she is installed by the federations against the confederation, it is not she who will free herself from the tutelage of the federations. Marie Buisson imposed by Martinez to many people who do not want it, it will not be easier, "he worries.

© 2023 AFP