A new, more personal front has opened up in the social conflict that has been brewing in France for several weeks.
This Sunday, the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, however wanted to calm things down. "
I disagree on the merits, but I have immense respect for Élisabeth Borne
", he repeated to two repeated during an interview on France Inter.
A way for the union leader, who defends himself from engaging in a political fight against Emmanuel Macron, to put the debate back on the ground of pension reform, rather than on the personality of the Prime Minister.
Thursday evening, Laurent Berger was brought to react live on France 2 immediately after the intervention of Élisabeth Borne.
He then lamented not “
not (having) heard of work
” while listening to the Prime Minister, before deciding: “
it is work that should have been talked about this evening to show a minimum of empathy
”.
The sentence was heard as an
ad hominem
attack , which Laurent Berger defended on Sunday.
"
I was talking about those words
," he said.
There is no personal attack, it's not my way.
»
Read alsoRetreats: Macron-Borne, a duo, two methods
Whatever the number 1 of the CFDT says, Elisabeth Borne did not taste her outing on Thursday evening.
Questioned the next day, Friday afternoon, by our colleagues from the
JDD
, the Prime Minister considered these remarks "
hurtful
".
"
It's the opposite of who I am and what I wear
," she defended.
She takes a very severe look at Laurent Berger's remarks, which she qualifies, for her part, as a "
personal attack
".
This is not the first time that the personality of Elisabeth Borne invites itself into the public debate.
This week, the communist leader Fabien Roussel compared in a slip the prime minister to Margaret Thatcher, nicknamed “
the iron lady
”.
Marine Le Pen went there much more frankly in reaction to the appointment of Elisabeth Borne as head of government last May.
"
Rather than responding to a need for closeness with the French, for warmth, he chooses exactly the opposite, he chooses a technocrat, cold, brutal
", had asserted the finalist of the presidential election.
