Sleeve. Ginette Bihel, 64 years of commitment to the Communist Party

When she saw the invitation, she says she didn't understand why she was paid homage. “It's usually for the dead, right?” », she smiles.

And then, the night before the big day, sleep was hard to come by. It's not easy to be put forward when you have humility built into your body. Ginette Bihel is 94 years oldeven if she seems to have ten or twenty fewer. Convictions in life have no age.

In December 1960, she joined the Communist Party, at the time of the creation of the Bricquebec cell (delegated commune of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Manche). A little over 64 years later, the section, since reunited with Valognes (Manche), celebrated this longevity.

In her life, she was elected municipal in Bricquebec between 1983 and 2008. In the 1960s, she also ran for legislative elections.

I feel like I'm the heir to what Ginette has carried all this time. The party was already modern, but she opened the way a little more for women. I say thank you to him for having carried all his battles.

An air of Piaf

Nothing predestined Ginette Bihel to get involved. There wasn't much politics at home when she was a kid. It is at thirty years since she committed. To reduce inequalities, so that everyone finds their place.

My husband had a friend who was a member of the party. One day he came to our house to repair an electrical cable. He saw the Huma on the girl's pram. He was surprised. He told us that one day he would meet a young couple in Bricquebec who read Huma. This is how we got involved. We already had a sense of social justice. I'm a bit like Edith Piaf: I regret nothing!

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The They never left his daily life, until today. Always vigilant, always connected to social networks where nothing concerning the PCF escapes her alertness.

You impress more than one with your comments, your analyses, your historical perspective on social, political and societal developments. When you don't agree, we know it and even if you annoy some people, with you it's not the posture that counts, it's the political argument, the political analysis based on a precise information and long political experience. And if it creates debate, so much the better. Debate is healthy, controversy is futile.

Living memory

There is something encyclopedic about going back in time with her. This staircase which led to the federal premises, in a building on Rue du Vieux Pont, in Cherbourg. “If someone came there to pick a fight with us, we could have, like in the Middle Ages, thrown boiling oil on their heads,” we heard then, with a smile. The time of friends, in Bricquebec, when René Guesdon, Pauline Lemière and Pierre Fontaine joined the group.

The first campaign, with Octave Fatôme. The 1964 congress, when Ginette Bihel speaks about the Channel in front of Georges Marchais, Louis Aragon or Maurice Thorez. “If I had to encourage a young person to join the Communist Party, I think I would tell them about my life,” smiles the nonagenarian. There is so much satisfaction. We experience things that many do not experience. The icing on the cake for me is seeing my children take over. »

She is an example that, as time passes, we can maintain our youthful ideals.

“Before the legislative elections, in the 60s, a neighbor came to tell me to think carefully before committing myself. My husband was a craftsman and I was not a permanent civil servant. My husband said that if we no longer had a job because of this, well we would find something else. And we did well! It didn't change anything. I would even say that some right-wing people came after that. We must not be afraid to commit to what we believe in. »

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