The delegates present at the Grande Halle d'Auvergne, in the agglomeration of Clermont-Ferrand, rejected by 50.32% of the votes cast the activity report of the outgoing leadership, a major setback for Mr. Martinez and the candidate he had chosen to replace him, Marie Buisson.

"This is a first for the CGT of modern times," Jean-Marie Pernot, a political scientist specializing in the history of unions, told AFP.

"It is a disavowal of everything that has been carried out by the outgoing leadership," reacted to the press Céline Verzeletti, co-secretary general of the UFSE (Federal Union of State Trade Unions), more and more openly candidate to succeed Mr. Martinez.

This election is a "vote by mandates", which means that the vote of each delegate was "well debated" within the unions, "it is not a vote of mood (...) So this is not a small signal sent to the outgoing leadership," she stressed.

Throughout the afternoon, speakers had followed one another at the rostrum to criticize the orientations of the outgoing leadership, and the lack of internal democracy in the CGT.

"Comrade Philippe Martinez, who gave you a mandate to talk about mediation while workers are in the street?" asked Murielle Morand, of the chemical federation.

Delegates criticized a lack of consultation regarding the work of rapprochement between the CGT and the FSU and Solidaires unions, or during the creation in 2020 of the collective "Never again", bringing together unions, NGOs and associations to tackle ecological and social issues head-on.

Some rebelled against platforms signed with reformist unions, or with the Medef.

- towards a "more offensive" CGT?-

Congress opened Monday in a stormy atmosphere, with several representatives of the trade federation forcibly entering the congressional hall to protest the fact that they could not sit there.

The management had suffered several hostile votes, including one modifying the rules of the Congress, which put back in the saddle the candidacy of the restless secretary general of the Departmental Union of Bouches-du-Rhône, Olivier Mateu, whose radical line should not however allow him to win.

Opening of the 53rd congress of the CGT, March 27, 2023 in Clermont-Ferrand © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

Other conflicts have erupted, concerning the non-participation in the Congress of the CGT Police, or the eviction of a journalist member of the SNJ-CGT, accused of having transmitted to a colleague the speech under embargo of Marie Buisson.

"This is the first time I have experienced a tense congress like this," said the secretary general of the Federation Mines Energie, Sébastien Menesplier.

Support of Céline Verzeletti, Mr. Menesplier asked that the "three candidates that emerge" be "respected", that of Marie Buisson as those of Céline Verzeletti and Olivier Mateu.

Earlier in the morning, on the sidelines of the demonstration in Clermont-Ferrand as part of the 10th day of action against the pension reform, Céline Verzeletti had said she was "available" to take the lead of a CGT "much more offensive".

Philippe Martinez had bid farewell to the press by welcoming the fact that the CGT is a "living organization", open to "democratic debate".

"All the union members I see are proud to be in the CGT, of what it is leading in this struggle with the other trade union organizations. It is the image of a protest organization that makes proposals, it is an image of the CGT as it is and not as sometimes we try to caricature it."

© 2023 AFP