A national rally takes to the streets for bakers, but is more hesitant about pensions

This month of January, from the National Rally (RN), there are good and bad demonstrations. It was good on January 23rd when the Bakers’ Collective called on the Government to tackle the explosion in their energy bills. January 19 was bad, behind the union opposing the pension reform. About fifteen RN deputies showed up at a bakers’ demonstration in Place de la Nation in Paris, rejecting, for example, the party’s first argument about marching with the unions: “The street is not in our DNA. »

Four days earlier, they were fifteen times less in all of France: Jérôme Buson, elected in Ain, is the only deputy who spoke about being on the march against the pension reform. He crashed out in Bourg-en-Bresse for the CFDT, without the tricolor scarf in the first half, and in the second – he continues to do so at every event. He misses a bit after playing the Yellow Jackets on circuitous highways in 2019. Since then, his party has turned him into a lightning rod: the RN has nothing against counter-demonstrations, look at Jérôme Buisson.

“Leads the fight in the assembly”

In September 2022, the party’s executive body discussed the presence of MPs in future protests against pension reform. Not in Paris, but in the small towns, where the party knew how to find a less hostile gaze in the ranks of the trade unions than in the leaders of the big centers. But at the beginning of the year, the line was always the same: that of Marine Le Pen, who is hostile to any kind of demonstration and is trying to capitalize on her unexpected status as the first opposition group. “All RN voters can take to the streets to show their misunderstanding or even their anger against this reform.”he explained. But it is our responsibility as politicians and elected officials to take the fight to the National Assembly and debate. »

Did the success of the January 19 demonstrations, especially in small towns that are rarely mobilized, turn the RN on its head? At first we believed him. Deputy Buisson’s personal initiative was publicly welcomed by the Vice-President of the National Assembly, Sébastien Chenou, who the next day did not rule out participation in the January 31 rally. On Monday, January 23, at the Bakers’ Demonstration, the MP from the North “doesn’t prohibit anything” But it seemed warmer: “We will do exactly what we want and what seems the most to us. What is important for us today is to prevent a majority in the National Assembly from voting for pension reform. This is the most effective, so far. » The RN makes a distinction between the state of the energy market, which is not discussed in the Assembly, and the state of pensions, where it intends to take advantage of the two weeks of discussions to present its arguments.