Frédéric Souillot, the metalworker who must finish re-welding FO

Now ex-secretary general of Force Ouvrière (FO), Yves Veyrier seems to have taken up the challenge he had accepted by taking the head of a confederation in bad shape after the forced resignation of Pascal Pavageau in 2018. Of course, the few 210 speeches at the podium of the XXV^e FO congresses since Monday have been the occasion for regular attacks, “with some slippages at the extreme limit, in one or two cases, of the lack of respect“, noted the ex-boss of the confederation of the avenue du Maine. But the vast majority of the 3,000 delegates, seated on huge white-covered tables perpendicular to the stage of the Palais des Congrès in Rouen, seemed determined to close one of the darkest periods of the third French central, in terms of members (380,000 cards according to FO) and representativeness.

Thursday, Yves Veyrier’s response to the criticisms issued the previous days on his balance sheet was even the occasion of several rounds of applause, sometimes fed…