This is not a meeting. It must be a “choreography”, even if no one comes out excited. The image is of a minister at the heart of the organization of the famous meeting between Elisabeth Borne and the inter-union, Wednesday at 10 a.m. Matignon. The same completes: “Each must know in advance what the other is going to say.” Leaving as little room as possible for the unexpected means combining acrobatics and diplomacy, two terms, we will agree, which do not exactly define the mood of the moment. The words of the Head of Government should be short, then there will be a round of discussion. “I hope we will be able to talk to each other”, remarked Elisabeth Borne this Tuesday morning, during the breakfast of the majority.
Because the uncertainties remain strong. “There are two unknowns: does the CGT demand an answer immediately after speaking? Does the CGT go away after the roundtable?” Sums up a member of the government. The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt knows the new general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, from the time when he was in the Socialist Party, and she too. It is an understatement to say that a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since that time. Elisabeth Borne like him took a wind when they offered to have a telephone contact. Not the moment, she said.
Choreography and cuddle therapy? This is the dream plan of the executive, the pink scenario. For this, exchanges have multiplied between Elisabeth Borne and the ministers concerned. “We must let the unions speak at length first and, on the government side, start by saluting the responsibility they have shown, especially during the demonstrations”, suggested Stanislas Guérini, who, as Minister of the Public Service, has contacts with trade unions more often than not. He also advises that the government stop saying that it wants to play on the divisions of the inter-union, a message which is not the most appropriate to appease.
The unknown Laurent Berger
The Prime Minister ended up renewing contact with Laurent Berger after being disappointed by his attitude in recent months. She criticizes him for not having kept a double commitment that he would have personally made to her: stressing that, despite his hostility to the measure, a retirement age of 64 is not the same as 65; note the advances contained in the reform. It will therefore closely monitor the attitude of the leader of the CFDT. Will he agree to talk about pensions beyond the reminder of the opposition in principle to 64-year-olds?
Some, in the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, pleaded for a gesture, to value the 63 years and three months at the end of the five-year term for example. But the track will not be followed. “Nobody asks us, replies another faithful of the president. So that would amount to making a compromise with ourselves. The unions do not care! As much as it would be an absolute stupidity on the part of the government not to explore the compromise , as much there, it would be an over-accident.
“The impossible no one is bound”
“Elisabeth Borne does not need advice, I advise her to be smiling, kind and patient… The impossible, no one is required”, confides a minister. It’s his chance, it’s his risk. The head of government is playing on a terrain that is not necessarily unfavorable to her – she technically masters the pension file – but in an atmosphere that is clearly hostile to her, expected at the turn by the left, the far right, the unions… and part of his own team, which ends up hurting quite a few people.
To help reduce the pressure, a minister reports this lesson from his informal and discreet contacts: “The unions are asking for there to be no exit point.” Another confirms: “Everyone agrees that nothing should be conclusive.”
In the meantime, Elisabeth Borne sits down to eat. After her dinner last Tuesday, during which several Macronist ministers had pleaded for her to know how to “unstick” from the president, she received other members of the government on Monday evening. The guests were numerous: full-time ministers Olivier Dussopt, Christophe Béchu, Pas Ndiaye, Marc Fesneau, Agnès Pannier-Runacher; the deputy ministers Olivier Klein and Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo; and Secretary of State for the Sea Hervé Berville. “It was pretty cool, but to get a major thing out of it…no,” said one of the participants. It was at least one evening when no one slammed the door.