For the first time, a woman reaches the command post of the CGT. Sophie Binet was elected, Friday, March 31, secretary general, at the end of the 53e congress of his union, which took place in Clermont-Ferrand in an extremely tense atmosphere. Such a choice is a surprise, because she was not in the running to succeed Philippe Martinez at the beginning of the reunion of the CGT family, in the capital of Puy-de-Dôme.
Three other personalities were in the race, including Marie Buisson, considered Mr. Martinez’s favorite candidate and who had been dubbed by the outgoing management team. But this was rejected by the national confederal committee (CCN), the “Parliament” of the CGT, which brings together the federations and the departmental unions. The task of the new leader promises to be more than difficult: she will have to work to pick up the pieces of an organization that has been tearing itself apart for months.
Getting out of the impasse
The suspense lasted until dawn. The SCC ruled on Friday, around 8:45 a.m., in favor of Mme Binet by 61 votes for, 11 against and 16 abstentions. His name had been proposed at dawn by another body of the CGT, the Confederal Executive Commission (CEC). This governance body, which had begun its work the day before shortly before midnight, had to submit a name, knowing that there were two known possibilities: Mme Buisson and Céline Verzeletti, co-general secretary of the Federal Union of State Trade Unions. A third figure of the CGT had also declared himself: Olivier Mateu, boss of the departmental union of Bouches-du-Rhône, listed among the supporters of a hard line. But he was ultimately unable to complete his process, for statutory reasons.
After the rejection of the candidacy of Mr.me Buisson, the CEC failed to agree on an alternative offer, which would have been embodied by Mme Verzeletti. To get out of this impasse, a new solution was therefore found in the person of Mr.me Binet. Aged 41, she was at the head, until now, of the CGT-Cadres. She has also been very involved in feminist struggles and against gender-based violence. At the head of the confederation, there will be, at his side, Laurent Brun, propelled to the post of administrator – a key function in the apparatus of the union. This is the head of the powerful federation of railway workers. For several years, he had expressed his opposition to Mr. Martinez out loud, deploring the lack of internal democracy and criticizing the partnership forged by the CGT with environmental associations in the collective Never again.