Three days before the first round of early legislative elections (June 30) caused by the dissolution of the National Assembly, nearly 200 people gathered on the forecourt of the Cratère theatre in Alès, at the joint call of the CGT, CFDT, Solidaires, Unsa, Fsu and Fo collective.
As in Nîmes, Uzès and Bagnols, the unions launched a united call on Thursday 27 June to demonstrate against the extreme right. “after the shock of the European elections” so that they may be heard “social demands.” In a press release, the collective specifies that “Trade unions have been warning for years about the social and democratic crisis that is sweeping through our country. A politician who turns his back on social issues and who creates downgrading, abandonment of our industries and public services, the forcing through of the historic mobilization against pension reform, the absence of prospects for progress and the trivialization of racist theories, constitutes the breeding ground on which the extreme right thrives.”
Not a voice of workers for the National Rally
While a series of measures are then listed to respond to the social emergency: Increase in salaries and pensions, return to the reform of pensions and unemployment insurance, defense of public services and massive investments in education, the health system or the taxation of super profits, it is a rather older public that gathered around the banner of the New Cévennes Popular Front, the fruit of the coalition of left-wing political parties: PCF, PS, LFI and Ecologists.
Before marching through the city center, Martine Sagit, secretary of the local CGT union, closed her speech with a blunt message: “ Not a voice of workers for the National Rally”. Targeted in particular, Jordan Bardella, far-right candidate in the European elections and probable candidate for the post of Prime Minister, by the youth dropping a message into the microphone, again, without ambiguity: “It’s not the immigrants, it’s not the illegal immigrants, it’s Bardella who needs to be fired!”
