They will demonstrate this Tuesday in Montpellier. Adèle, Samuel and Noa, all three FIDL activists, confide their concern about the world to come.
By Henri Frasque
© Celine Escolano
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Iare the demonstrations against the pension reform? “I did ten out of nine,” laughs Noa, 17, a high school student in the final year, specializing in geopolitics and physics and chemistry at the Jules-Guesde high school, a multi-purpose public establishment in Montpellier. Hear: the nine days of national demonstration, plus the day of demonstration of La France insoumise on January 21 in Paris. And not to mention the wild gatherings, every evening, at 6 p.m., in front of the prefecture of Montpellier.
Black jacket, mid-length hair and emerging mustache, Noa is the very active secretary general of the Independent and Democratic High School Federation (FIDL) of Hérault, an activist at LFI, and one of the leaders of the protest against the reform of retreats in his establishment. Son of an EPS teacher and an accompanying GIHP, the high school student was “Yellow Vest at 15”, and remembers his first demonstration, as a child, with his parents, against Nicolas Sarkozy. “Before, in high school, I was the boring guy who talked about politics, and now everyone comes to talk to me,” laughs the high school student. “People send us messages asking if we are going to launch a new blockade. We have become Uber-blockade! »
“Striking teachers who came to support us”
“The first time we blocked high school, we didn’t have a lot of experience, and we got a little overwhelmed,” admits Adèle, 16, co-secretary general of FIDL34 and student in second. “But last Friday, we lasted all day. There are even teachers on strike who have come to support us. “Now we’ve figured it out,” smiles Noa. Bins are tied together with cable ties and ropes. »
READ ALSOStrike of March 28: follow the 10th day of mobilization against the pension reform liveThey say they can count on each blockage on the reinforcement of about thirty high school students. “More numerous at the start of the day than at the end…” admits Samuel, 17, in the final year, a nonchalant heavy metal fan with raven hair, dressed all in black, also an FIDL activist. This son of independent real estate agents will do “a cook’s CAP”. Adèle, daughter of doctors, would like to be a “journalist or deputy”. Noa “hasn’t the faintest idea. Perhaps parliamentary assistant”.
A hundred high school students out of 18,000 demonstrators
The three activists do not expect to be followed by a huge crowd of high school students leaving their establishment this morning, to join the start of the 10e national day of demonstration, in the Antigone district. “Last time, there were 42 of us behind the FIDL banner, and a hundred high school students in the demonstration,” counted Noa. A straw in a demonstration which brought together 18,000 people according to the prefecture, 40,000 according to the unions.
READ ALSOBut what really drives young people? Too bad, he believes, that “many high school students are not interested in reform or politics. However, as Jean-Luc said [Mélenchon] when he came to a meeting in Montpellier: if you are not interested in politics, politics will be interested in you! If they demonstrate again this Tuesday, it is of course against the pension reform. “First out of intergenerational solidarity: for our parents, our uncles, our aunts, our grandparents, all those who will have to work longer,” lists Adèle. Who is worried about embarking on “long studies to have a stable job, to the detriment of a retirement for which one will not have contributed enough”.
“I’m afraid to be a high school student in this world that we are being prepared for”
But if they demonstrate, it is also “against Parcoursup, against the universal national service, and to protest against the government’s climate inaction”. Adèle is also very involved in the Climate Marches of Youth for Climate, and is worried about the latest IPCC report. “It’s scary to be a high school student in this world that we are being prepared for,” says Noa. In the meantime, he tries to reconcile his activism with the baccalaureate, which he passes by repeating a year. “Last week, I took the tests during the day, and I went to a general assembly or to a demonstration in the evening. “All three understand that their parents may be worried about their commitment:” They are afraid that something will happen to me, Adèle confides. Myself, I am afraid, after seeing what happened in the demonstrations against the mega basins. But they want to go all the way. “Until the withdrawal! “The teenager is sure:” with the passage in force of 49.3, there is a new situation. Now is not the time to give up the fight! »