It is a chant that has been resounding for two months, since the protest against Macron's pension reform began in the squares of France: "On est là....on est là, même si Macron ne le veut pas, nous on est la! Pour l'honneur des travailleurs et pour un monde meilleur, même si Macron ne le veut pas, nous on est là!"
(we are here, we are here, even if Macron doesn't want to, we are here. For the honor of workers and for a better world).
THE ANTHEM "ON EST LA'" SUNG BY THE PROTESTERS
#onestla#onnelacherien#manif17Mars #Laval#Lamayenne pic.twitter.com/x2HrpVDqwH
— profsdu53encolere #ResistSR (@profsdu53encol1) March 17, 2023
The song resounds everywhere, and even those returning from the "manif" continue to whistle or sing it.
For this reason, "On est là" has already prompted many to trace the roots of this song, which has taken its place in the processions of the Marseillaise, the Internazionale and Bella Ciao.
For the first time, the chant rang out 10 years ago in the boiling curve of the Lens stadium, the legendary "Bollaert", where the fans of the "blood and gold" colours, irritated against their favorites for the often disappointing results, sang " on est la, on est la, even if you don't deserve it we are here, for the love of the shirt you wear we are here".
On notes not perfectly traced but certainly inspired by the famous hit of the 1971 Sanremo Festival, "Che Sara".
The song would have debuted - as a protest hymn - during the demonstrations of the "cheminots", the railway workers, in Lyon in 2018. This Clément Dagorne, a railway worker, would have taken the anthem of the curve from a Lens fan friend, singing it with the words "for the honor of the railwaymen and the future of our children, we are here...".
Since then, the old choir of Lens fans has made its way to the Assemblée Nationale, where the deputies of Nupes, the alliance of the gauche, sang it at the top of their voices to challenge the government's reliance on trust to pass the pension reform law.