The president of MoDem, François Bayrou, denounced on Sunday “blackmail” by unions threatening to strike during the Olympic Games for “corporatist advantages”, which he considers “contrary” to the “principles” of “citizenship”. “To seize an event, which is an important event for the country, the nation, for the French themselves and the most modest in particular (…) to make it a subject of confrontation for corporatist advantages, I find that it does not correspond to the idea that we should have civic principles, of citizenship”, declared François Bayrou during the program “Political Questions” France Inter/Franceinfo/Le Monde.
“The French are starting to get used to it. In any case, it harms the idea that we can have rights and in particular the right to strike, when it is thus, in my opinion, diverted from its principle”, insisted the mayor of Pau. “It amounts to a moment of blackmail,” added François Bayrou.
“Something that doesn’t look like what we want to build together”
“The idea that, because I have the key to common life, to the shared life of the French, I can impose my will for my sole benefit, I find that there is something there which does not resemble what we want to build together”, concluded the mayor of Pau, High Commissioner for Planning.
He was questioned about the “social bill” of the Games, while railway workers notably obtained a daily bonus for those who will work during the 2024 Olympics, the day after a very successful strike in Ile-de-France. Calls for strikes have also been issued among municipal police officers, and even among Parisian garbage collectors.