In the play that French-style social dialogue has become, new actors are about to take the stage. It is with them that the government will have to refine the details of the future Labor law, a text – obese – which must engrave in stone the creation of France Travail, tackle the puzzles of the employment of seniors or of hardship. Some headliners are already known: Sophie Binet, the newly elected general secretary of the CGT, or more recently Marylise Léon, who will replace Laurent Berger at the head of the CFDT.
Who after Roux de Bézieux?
One name is still missing, the one who will succeed Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux as president of Medef. The election is scheduled for July 6. The campaign is already underway, as is the race for the sponsorships needed to appear in the final battle. In the running, Patrick Martin, the candidate for continuity, current No. 2 of the employers’ organization, Dominique Carlac’h, already a candidate in 2018, who heads a consulting company, or even Pierre Brajeux, delegate president of the French Federation of private security, stamped candidate of the rupture.
If Patrick Martin has a good head start on his competitors, the election is not yet decided. Because it floats on the Medef the same small icy wind which blew on the congress of the CGT a month ago.
As at the Montreuil plant, the outgoing president’s balance sheet is criticized by a tougher and more dissenting fringe which denounces a Medef that is too soft, a “supporting” Medef, and which defends a “proposal” Medef. Even “of combat”, as Pierre Gattaz had theorized it. Obviously, the challenge to employers does not really have the same smell as the CGT. But words matter. And, after the first meeting at the Elysée, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux announced the color: “A hundred days is too short to come to any conclusions.” For the government, this – slight – stiffening changes everything. During the dispute over pension reform, the voice of employers remained oddly silent. She could be heard more. While the turn of the debt reduction of the State is launched by Bercy, the bosses fear that certain promised or granted tax gifts go by the wayside. Because the effort on public spending will have to be carried by all. For the executive, the equation becomes more complicated.