In recent months, the young man has been juggling his ministerial and electoral agendas. Thursday, often, but also week-end, he arrives in Rouen for a public meeting, a city bike tour with the mayor or door-to-door. “When the 2012 presidential teams rediscovered door-to-door, he quips, they said, “We import the Obama method.” At UNEF, we did it for ten years in the university residences… ”
The UNEF method. Like Jean-Baptiste Prévost, other former leaders of the student union are campaigning these days, applying their activism on the ground. Bruno Julliard (president from 2005 to 2007) and Karl Stoeckel are candidates in Paris, on Anne Hidalgo’s lists. Yassir Fichtali (president from 2001 to 2005) presents himself in Saint-Ouen, Mathieu Hanotin in Saint-Denis.
But there are also Tania Assouline and Anne Delbende in Montreuil, Tristan Lahais in Rennes, Michael Delafosse in Montpellier, Benjamin Vételé in Blois… The list is not exhaustive.
THE “FOUNDING TRAUMATISM” OF APRIL 21, 2002
Because it is a whole UNEF generation, that of the years 2002-2012, which today tries to to take the to be able to in town halls, in Parliament or in ministerial offices … “It is first of all the story of a bunch of friends”, assures Jean-Baptiste Prévost. They go on vacation together, sponsor their respective children and get together for birthday parties.
Many were, on February 9, at Bruno Julliard’s for his 33 years. A few days earlier, on January 17, they celebrated the “Rack dependency” of UNEF. Quite a symbol: 112, boulevard de Belleville, in Paris, it is the seat of the union since 2001. It is there that the “Bunch of friends” was trained in union combat, beforeto access to the gold of the Republic.
Certainly, the exceptional mobilizations (May 68, the Devaquet project in 1986 or the professional integration contract in 1994) marked student activism. But the 2002-2012 generation has a particular cohesion, which it owes to “Foundational trauma” April 21, 2002: the accession of Jean-Marie Le Pen to the second round of the presidential election.
“Young people have massively raised their heads, believes Bruno Julliard. A new generation of activists has entered UNEF. The union succeeded in s’link, ignoring internal struggles, in this battle against the far right. “
High school or left-wing students, they discover that the electorate can kick in stretchers. “This is the trigger for my commitment, says Jean-Baptiste Prévost. I participated in student demonstrations in Rouen. And I realized, above all, the danger for the left of to break up with the popular classes. “
It will be their obsession: understand the aspirations of the “movement social “, and the porter. ” In 2002, continues Jean-Baptiste Prévost, the right takes the to be able to for ten years and UNEF is mode defensive for to prevent that students do not lose rights. “
« AN INSURANCE THAT WE KEEP ALL YOUR LIFE ”
The showdown comes four years later. Because this UNEF generation is also that of April 10, 2006. That day, the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, announces that “The conditions are not met” for the application of the “first hire contract”.
The CPE was supposed to favor hiring young people by authorizing the employer to to break up the employment contract in the first two years without to have To to give pattern. The student movement swept away the reform, yet passed by Parliament.
“It was a real militant, grueling, difficult and exhilarating ordeal, says Jean-Baptiste Prévost. This greatly strengthened our ties with Bruno, who was then president. But it is also a political lesson: the social movement must to find its place in the PS, because political commitment cannot be cut off in its ivory tower. “
The ordeal hardened the leather of young activists. UNEF is a formidable school of activism. It offers a formation rigid ideological, learn to lancer a petition, to organiser a demonstration, at structure a speech in front of an auditorium, at to negotiate with a government.
“It gives an assurance that you keep your whole life”, confides Yassir Fichtali, president from 2001 to 2005. With the CPE, the movement is accelerating. It is necessary to take decisions quickly, organiser mobilization without ruin UNEF. “I was treasurer, I can you to say that we played our skin “, says Jean-Baptiste Prévost.
Within weeks, union officials learn to to do good use of media. “Apparently, the doors of UNEF were open all the time, remembers Bruno Julliard. In fact, sometimes we have done everything to to avoid that the media see certain aspects of the mobilization. “*
TRAINED IN THE OPPOSITION, NOT IN “THE COMFORT OF POWER”
For recall sensitive subjects without awake curiosity, they invent secret codes. While he complains about the “Government silence” in front of a journalist, Bruno Julliard is rightly called by … a to advise de Matignon, Gonzague de Pirey. When he hangs up, he lets out to a sidekick from UNEF: “I heard from the chicks… They call me back tonight…”
Bruno Julliard learns to confront Jean-François Copé, government spokesperson, on television sets, not to let stroll through Nicolas sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior. We must also reframe the ardor of former UNEF who have become responsible for the PS, such as Julien Dray or Jean-Christophe Cambadélis. Bruno Julliard then reminds Francois Hollande, first secretary, that he must « to own his troops “.
Assistant to the culture of the mayor of Paris since 2012, who became one of the spokespersons of Anne Hidalgo, candidate for the mayor of Paris, he has kept the habit of ascend to the net. Examples of his tweets: “In the absence of Paul Bismuth, NKM is re-tapping for to fill his meeting tonight: spam Facebook + SMS to the chain… Feverishness? “ (March 19) or “For the 98th time, there really, the dynamic campaign of NKM is launched. Of course, in a half-empty room, without a project and without a team ” (February 10) …
“We were formed in the opposition, not in the comfort of power, affirms Raphaël Chambon, now deputy director of the cabinet of the minister of transports, Frédéric Cuvillier. It is a militant education which gets used to the harshness of the fight while remaining firm on the principles. See the crisis that UNEF went through in the 1990s because it had sinned by proximity to the to be able to leftist politics. She lost her independence. “
MANY CHOOSE … PS
Another characteristic of this generation: it broke with the socialist elders. “It’s a generation that refuses mentors”, continues Raphaël Chambon. Yassir Fichtali remembers: “The break with Julien Dray took place quite quickly after my election. We didn’t want toto be an element in a political device aimed at channel youth movements. “
A break that is not definitive. After UNEF – “The truant ENA”, jokes Jean-Baptiste Prévost -, many choose… the PS, like Bruno Julliard who says to himself ” aubryste “, Even the left of the PS. Many people recognize themselves in Benoît Hamon, making him a de facto “tutor” of the UNEF.
Most indeed confide their “Big doubts” on the policy led by the President of the Republic. “It is thanks to them that François Hollande was elected, recalls Pouria Amirshahi, president of UNEF from 1994 to 1998, socialist deputy of the French abroad. They feel cheated and they are right. “
If they doubt, they show themselves good soldiers and swear want to the success of the left. “We do not want the fights we waged for ten years to end in profit and loss”, summarizes Bruno Julliard.
So that the “band of friends” of the UNEF is every summer faithful to the meeting of the summer school of the PS in La Rochelle, after a ritual vacation in a rented house, in Italy, to Portugal or in Dordogne.
There, they get up early, visit the nearby sites and then meet again in the late afternoon. “We then play Trivial Pursuit and Risk, a strategy game whose goal is to to conquer the world, smiles Isabelle Dumestre, former UNEF. We always argue because nobody likes to lose. Without consequence. Moreover, we are talking about redeem a farm restore in the Creuse. We discuss until very late at night, we remake the world. “
However, it is necessary to start through to win municipal elections on more down to earth subjects. At the Saint-Marc market in Rouen, Jean-Baptiste Prévost and the mayor are to challenge by a man who complains about the erased pedestrian crossings in front of the station. Yvon Robert tries to to reassure this potential voter, who remains skeptical.
Jean-Baptiste Prévost draws a brochure: “This is our program! You will see what we propose for the road network. “ Remake the world will wait : “There is at to do, for roads “, grumbles the gentleman.
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