The former secretary general of the CFDT deplores the “neither-nor” strategy between the RN and LFI advocated by leaders of the Republicans (LR) or the presidential camp before the second round of the legislative elections this Sunday, July 7.
Laurent Berger warns against any “hitch in the Republican withdrawal” in the face of the National Rally and gives his “support” to the “Republican” candidates, from François Ruffin to the former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, in an interview given to AFP on Monday July 1.
“I support all the candidates who will be in a duel against the National Rally. Whether his name is François Ruffin, I support him. Whether his name is Boris Vallaud, whether her name is Élisabeth Borne…”, insists the former leader of the CFDT who last year led the union revolt against the pension reform brought by the former Prime Minister.
An RN government will “attack[it] our values”
“I hope that Mr. Aurélien Rousseau [ancien ministre de la Santé et directeur de cabinet de Mme Borne pendant la réforme des retraites, Ndlr] be elected. I hope that Mr. Charles de Courson [député centriste sortant, Ndlr] be elected against the National Rally,” continues Laurent Berger.
We must “avoid a National Rally government” which, “will once again attack our values”, he adds, believing that France is living “without doubt the most dangerous moment in its history since 1945 in terms of democracy”.
Within the European Trade Union Confederation, the former union leader, who joined Crédit Mutuel at the end of 2023, saw “the damage of Mr. Orban in Hungary, the social and societal damage”. “I saw the damage of the PiS (Law and Justice, conservative and eurosceptic, Editor’s note) in Poland”, since defeated, “with discriminatory policies, even racist policies”, he says.
“We see what experiences like Mrs Meloni’s in Italy can lead to,” he adds. Laurent Berger, who wants to “live in a peaceful, democratic country that takes care of the most vulnerable and those in the most difficulty,” assures us that he is coming out of his reserve “for one reason only, to avoid the National Rally.”
“Moral fault”
“I am not playing a personal card, but we must understand the tragic moment in which we find ourselves,” insists the man whom the leader of Place publique Raphaël Glucksmann had mentioned as a possible Prime Minister.
“Frankly, that’s not the point,” replies Laurent Berger. “I believe that tomorrow, there is the possibility that, from Mr. Ruffin to the most moderate Republicans, if we want to avoid the National Rally, people will be able to organize themselves” but “it is not” up to him to build this union.
Laurent Berger also believes that the leader of the Insoumis “Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the useful idiot of all those who do not want to withdraw”.
He thus targets leaders of the right-wing LR or the majority who advocate for the “neither-nor” between the RN and LFI, assuring that the leader of La France insoumise would be the Prime Minister, which several leaders of the New Popular Front have denied. And to warn that those who do not withdraw “will be in moral error”.
