Total refineries are a very unfortunate example

Read the history of the beginning of the quinquennium and you'll see continuously flush the frame of an objective alliance between Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of the Republic, and Bernard Thibault, Secretary General of the General Confederation of labour (CGT). The pitiful case Total this week, the appointment of Henri Proglio (the candidate of the CGT) at the head of EDF, the reform of the special schemes of retirement with very advantageous accommodation assigned to bastions of the CGT, the change of the Union which favours the larger organizations, so the CGT: the list of given wages is long.

There are many substantive reasons to support this hypothesis. The first ideological reflexes. Nicolas Sarkozy often shows signs of nostalgia of his childhood on any topic, but especially on the idea of Gaullism. His advisor Henri Guaino boasts the national Council of resistance of gaullo-Communist program, and a reading of the general policy is, indeed, to emphasize the "alliance" between him and the PC (which the CGT was the arm) to push the Socialists and other "representatives of the fourth". A policy successful until the arrival of Giscard in 1974. Nicolas Sarkozy today chausserait boots of the great man.

Need policy then. Having campaigned on a program of "break" one who insists on the adaptation of the France in the global competition, it causes, soon elected in May 2007, thrown shields of the unions, who want to dam "in the passage in force". His another close adviser, Raymond Soubie, is precisely to demine the progress on reforms in the negotiating largely and directly with the social partners. With the CGT rather than with the CFDT, the previous partner of the power of left or right Because a real background attraction: the "work more to earn more" is naturally closer to the CGT and the CFDT.

This great alliance Sarkozy-Thibault is obviously not official (not) or permanent, it has its many clashes. But she anchor in the long term as it is legitimate. We have seen in the crisis, in which the concessions made by the Government, a year ago, for the unemployed and the poor have cleared social field has become very dangerous. Dialogue has helped to prevent some Burns, and on the ground, the South and other representatives of the extreme left were pushed out of the occupied factories. Anti-capitalist does not work, the CGT and the CFDT in negotiating position if. The crisis of 2009 has been a sort of upside down, 1995, a defeat of the theories of the radical fight and the victory of reformism. The sarkozyenne logic is to promote the reform in the CGT, is not without it. It is for the France, to his credit.

Remains that this néo-gaullienne policy has two big disadvantages. The first is the quality / cost ratio. Reform special pension plans, it is now established, is passed but it is wasteful for the State both concessions were too many. Need to return it. Not without great difficulty, because the CGT to tell legitimate "flouée." At EDF, one wonders if the cost of the "deal" with Veolia is not maintaining in place of the quasi-cogestion with the CGT.

The second disadvantage is even heavier. The choice to modernize the France with the first of the unions, and not against, is a legitimate tactic, but it also illuminates a certain type of modernization that wants to engage Nicolas Sarkozy. The CGT is the bastions that the President must necessarily household when it should be pushing them. Total refineries are a very unfortunate example. The regional campaign did not justify that the CGT is defended on a rescue measure and deficit refineries also archaic line. Except to suggest that the President is, more than it does here, agree in substance with the CGT on the industrial future of the country. It would then be very worrying. The Sarkozy-Thibault alliance would then not was but rétrogradante.