Le Monde on Besancenot

This was in yesterday’s issue of Le Monde. La gauche c’est moi Il semble être partout. Olivier Besancenot occupe la scène politique comme jamais il n’a osé le rêver rêver. Il est loin le temps où Alain Krivine présentait son jeune poulain, futur candidat à la présidentielle, aux journalistes en demandant : “Il est…

Liam

December 13, 2007

4–6 minutes

This was in yesterday’s issue of Le Monde.

La gauche c’est moi

Il semble être partout. Olivier Besancenot occupe la scène politique comme jamais il n’a osé le rêver rêver. Il est loin le temps où Alain Krivine présentait son jeune poulain, futur candidat à la présidentielle, aux journalistes en demandant : “Il est sympa non ?” Six ans plus tard, sa bouille de Tintin joufflu est désormais omniprésente à gauche, sur les écrans de télévision de Canal+ ou d’i-Télé, sur les ondes de radio, dans les colonnes du Parisien… Il trône même en double page dans Paris Match, assis sur un tabouret dans un bistrot du 18^e, sous une photo de Che Guevara. Ultime consécration, une équipe de “Groland”, émission parodique très appréciée chez les jeunes, s’est déplacée à son dernier meeting parisien le 22 novembre à la Mutualité.

Les enquêtes de popularité, qui le donnent sur les talons de Ségolène Royal et de Bertrand Delanoë, ne sont pas étrangères à cette soudaine présence médiatique. Ce fut d’abord BVA, qui attribua au jeune postier 40 % d’opinions favorables, juste derrière le maire de Paris, puis Ipsos, et enfin la Sofres. Olivier Besancenot, 33 ans, disputerait aux grandes figures socialistes la prééminence à gauche. Semblant donner ainsi raison à la Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR), qui prétend être devenue “la seule petite tour à gauche dans la débâcle”.

A ses meetings, ses mentors, Alain Krivine et François Sabado, qui lui faisaient répéter ses textes jusqu’il y a peu, sont désormais assis au deuxième rang, en observateurs ravis de leur réussite. “Il est très bon”, ne cessent-ils de répéter quand le jeune leader fait vibrer son public en assénant qu’il veut être “cette gauche qui ne lâche rien”, résolument opposée à un PS qui n’est “nulle part” et qui devrait “réapprendre à porter des pancartes en manif”. Ils se réjouissent même, eux qui n’ont connu la “Ligue” que marginale.

Ces aînés avaient parié sur “la rupture générationnelle” nécessaire après trente ans de candidature Krivine, pour tenter de concurrencer la popularité d’”Arlette” (Laguiller). Les résultats obtenus en 2002 – 4,27 % des voix -, et surtout les 4,08 % du scrutin présidentiel en mai 2007 (deux fois plus que M^me Laguiller et M^me Buffet, la candidate communiste), ont dépassé tous leurs pronostics, en installant définitivement Besancenot en tête de la gauche radicale.

Depuis un mois, c’est une étape supplémentaire qu’il semble avoir franchie : s’installer en concurrent direct d’un PS devenu trop raisonnable et ne sachant plus se démarquer de la droite. “Le PS n’incarne pas l’alternative et laisse un espace vide qu’occupe Besancenot”, constate Vincent Tiberj, chercheur au Cevipof, le Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po. L’après-présidentielle a amplifié ce phénomène. Un sondage de l’IFOP pour Le Journal du dimanche, publié le 2 novembre, montre que 7 % des personnes interrogées voteraient aujourd’hui Besancenot. La poussée est particulièrement nette chez les ouvriers (12 %) et les employés (11 %). “Le PS apparaît sans ligne ni leader face à Sarkozy. A gauche, il reste le facteur comme seule opposition”, analyse Jérôme Fourquet, directeur de l’IFOP.

Besancenot occupe le terrain militant en tentant, depuis la rentrée de septembre, de “coller” au plus près à l’agenda des luttes ouvrières. Il est partout, des mal-logés de la rue de la Banque à une manifestation de soutien aux “usagers de La Poste” à Colombes ou une conférence de presse contre le réacteur nucléaire EPR. Quand il intervient sur un plateau de télévision, il cite toujours un exemple de “salariés en lutte” rencontrés juste avant. Playtex, Yoplait, Nestlé, Citroën ou Well… Il relaie les colères ouvrières, les revendications de “gens à bout”.

La grève se déclenche à la SNCF ? Il est le premier à soutenir publiquement les cheminots, déboule, la veille du mouvement, au dépôt de Sotteville-lès-Rouen pour demander “aux gars de tenir”. Les “roulants” l’accueillent comme un des leurs. Au bord des cortèges, lors des grandes manifestations parisiennes, il est acclamé : “Tiens bon, Olivier ! Y a plus que toi.” Dans les locaux syndicaux, ses interviews sont désormais affichées : “Il était déjà populaire, mais là il fait un carton”, raconte son ami du 18^e arrondissement, Basile Pot, aiguilleur à la gare de l’Est. “Il y a une telle confusion dans l’expression politique du PS que les gens se reconnaissent dans son langage clair”, confirme Annick Coupé, porte-parole de Solidaires, l’union syndicale regroupant les SUD. “Il a eu l’intelligence de sentir qu’il y avait un espace politique inoccupé”, reconnaît le député communiste Patrick Braouezec.

Le jeune leader de la LCR a su aussi, depuis 2001, montrer sa différence. Un look décontracté – éternel jean foncé et tee-shirt noir -, un langage simple et percutant avec des slogans travaillés, une posture de “salarié comme les autres” revendiquée contre les costumes-cravate des notables. Il affiche aussi bien son admiration pour Che Guevara que son amitié avec les rappeurs Joey Starr et Monsieur R. “Sur la scène politique, on a l’impression qu’il vient d’une autre planète”, s’amuse Léon Crémieux, membre du bureau politique de la LCR.

Le style détonne à gauche mais plaît aux jeunes générations. “En intégrant de nouvelles thématiques comme l’écologie et l’altermondialisme, il a su structurer un électorat parmi les primo-votants”, souligne le chercheur Vincent Tiberj. Dans la génération née entre 1977 et 1982, le vote Besancenot atteint 12 %.

Lui continue de travailler son ancrage “prolo” et jeune. Son image populaire fait l’objet de toutes les attentions de son équipe. Pour les interviews, il choisit Le Parisien et les gratuits comme Métro, 20 Minutes. Et il préfère répondre à RMC Info, “une radio populaire”, plutôt qu’aux grands médias généralistes. “Pour beaucoup de travailleurs, ce sont les seules sources d’info. C’est devenu notre moyen de “com” politique”, justifie Léon Crémieux. Sans oublier les radios de banlieue, “pour toucher les jeunes des cités”.

2 responses to “Le Monde on Besancenot”

Halshall

December 13, 2007 at 9:52 am

Sorry mate I only just scraped through O-level French and that was back in 68!

Very (oops tres) gauche.

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Duncan

December 13, 2007 at 11:22 am

http://babelfish.altavista.com gives this:

The left it is me

HE seems to be everywhere. Olivier Besancenot occupies the political scene like never it did not dare to dream it. He is far time when Alain Krivine presented his young foal, future candidate with presidential, with the journalists while asking: “It is sympathetic not?” Six years later, its face of Tintin chubby-checked fellow is from now on omnipresent on the left, on the television screens of Canal+ or I-Tele, on the waves of radio, in the columns of Parisian… It throne even on double page in Paris Match, sitted on a stool in a bar of the 18E, under a photograph of Che Guevara. Ultimate dedication, a team of “Groland”, parodic emission very appreciated in the young people, moved with its last Parisian meeting on November 22 with Reciprocity.

The investigations of popularity, which give it on the heels of Ségolène Royal and Bertrand Delanoe, are not foreign with this sudden media presence. It was initially BVA, which allotted to the young post-office employee 40 % of favorable opinions, just behind the mayor of Paris, then Ipsos, and finally Sofres. Olivier Besancenot, 33 years, would dispute with the great socialist figures preeminence on the left. Pretence to thus give reason to the revolutionary communist League (LCR), which claims to have become “the only small tower on the left in the rout”.

With its meetings, its mentors, Alain Krivine and François Sabado, who made him repeat his texts until there is little, from now on sat with the second rank, in which charmed observers of their success. “It is very good”, do not cease they repeating when the young leader makes vibrate his public while assénant that it wants to be “this left which does not release anything”, resolutely opposite with a PS which is not “nowhere” and which should “relearn to carry signs into manif”. They are even delighted, them which knew the “League” only marginal.

These elder had bet on “the générationnelle rupture” necessary after thirty years of Krivine candidature, to try to compete with the popularity of “Arlette” (Laguiller). The results obtained in 2002 – 4,27 % of the voices -, and especially 4,08 % of the presidential poll in May 2007 (twice as much as Mme Laguiller and Mme Dresser, the communist candidate), exceeded all their forecasts, by definitively installing Besancenot at the head of the radical left.

For one month, it has been an additional stage which it seems to have reached: to settle in direct competitor of a PS become too reasonable and not knowing more to dissociate line. “the PS incarnates not the alternative and leaves an empty space which Besancenot occupies”, notes Vincent Tiberj, researcher in Cevipof, the political Research center of Sciences Po thepresidential one amplified this phenomenon. A survey of the IFOP for the Newspaper of Sunday, published on November 2, shows that 7 % of the questioned people would vote Besancenot today. The push is particularly clear in the workmen (12 %) and the employees (11 %). “the PS appears without line nor leader vis-a-vis with Sarkozy. On left, there remains the factor like only opposition “, analyzes Jerome Fourquet, director of the IFOP.

Besancenot occupies the ground militant while trying, since the re-entry of September, “to stick” to more close with the diary of the working fights. It is everywhere, of the badly-housed persons of the street of the Bank to a demonstration of support for the “users of the Post office” for Colombes or a press conference against nuclear engine EPR. When it intervenes on a plate of television, it always quotes an example of “paid in front fight ” met right. Playtex, Yoplait, Nestle, Citroen or Well… It relays working angers, the claims of “people with end”.

Does the strike start with the SNCF? It is the first to support publicly the railwaymen, déboule, the day before of the movement, with the deposit of Sotteville-lès-Rouen to ask “the guy to hold”. The “travelling ones” accomodate it like one as of theirs. At the edge of the processions, at the time of the great Parisian demonstrations, it is acclaimed: “Hold good, Olivier! Y has more than you.” In the trade-union buildings, its interviews from now on are posted: “It was already popular, but there it makes a paperboard”, tells his friend of the 18E district, Basile Pot, pointsman at the station of the East. “There is such a confusion in the political expression of the PS which people recognize in his open language”, confirms Annick Coupé, spokesman of Interdependent, the European Public Service Union gathering the CUS. “It had the intelligence to feel that there was an unoccupied political space”, the communist deputy Patrick Braouezec recognizes.

The young leader of the LCR also knew, since 2001, to show his difference. A relaxed look – dark Jean eternal and black tee-shirt -, a simple and percussion language with worked slogans, a posture of “paid like the others” asserted against the costume-tie of the notable ones. He posts as well his admiration for Che Guevara as his friendship with the rappeurs Joey Starr and Mr R. “On the political scene, one has the impression that it comes from another planet”, has fun Leon Crémieux, member of the political office of the LCR.

The style clashes on the left but likes the younger generations. “By integrating new sets of themes like ecology and the altermondialism, it knew to structure an electorate among the firstly-voters”, underlines the researcher Vincent Tiberj. In the generation born between 1977 and 1982, the Besancenot vote reaches 12 %.

He continue to work its anchoring “prole” and young person. Its popular image is the subject of all the attentions of its team. For the interviews, it chooses the Parisian one and the free ones like Métro, 20 Minutes. And it prefers to answer RMC Info, “a popular radio”, rather than with the great media general practitioners. “For much of workers, they are the only sources of information. It became our means of “political” “COM, justifies Leon Crémieux. Without forgetting the radios of suburbs, “to touch the young people of the cities”.

Monday December 3, Olivier Besancenot countermanded debate on the state of the left organized by the World with the Theatre of the Roundabout with Ségolène Royal. The organized discussion did not tally obviously with the profile of “super-delegate of the fights” of the former candidate. It preferred to go in the east of France to support employees of Kleber “threatened to be thrown in 2008” and workers of Shepherdess of France “scorned by their sheet-iron merchant”.

The vocabulary is knowingly studied, way poulbot. And very “pédago”, to make the policy accessible. With the difference of his elder, the young post-office employee works his public interventions. Finished time when Krivine griffonnait three ideas on a subway ticket before its meetings. Its junior makes cards, requests notes from the economists of his organization. “When it speaks, it is not theoretical nor blah. There remains very concrete, and the guy include/understand immediately “, ensures Jerome Ferard, 29 year old railwayman in Melun and all young member. “It can tell stories, sections of life which show with its audience that it is their”, his/her friend Basile Pot insists.

He has beautiful being the companion of an editor of Flammarion and to spend its holidays to the Antilles, as the blogs of UMP denounce it, he repeats that he gains “always only” 1 100 euros Nets per month, has only one CLIO and “half” a two-piece, in the 18E district of Paris, bought with credit. “I feel ten times closer to my colleagues than any other politician”, hammers the post-office employee. At the time of its last Parisian meeting, its “pals” of the sorting offices of Gennevilliers and the Neuilly-on-Seine had come in band, a badge CUS pinned on their wind-breakers bleu.marine. “It is the only one to propose a true opposition to Sarko”, ensures Anthony Mornas, electrotechnologist, new recruit of the pond of Berre.

The receipt goes so much so that the rows of the LCR grow bigger. If the organization posts always only some 3 000 militants, its meetings know a growing multitude. Under the influence of the post-office employee, militant sociology changed: “Since 2002, the LCR saw arriving of the young militants and of more popular categories, sensitive to the speech on the degraded living conditions”, underlines Florence Joshua, enquiring of Cevipof which worked on the files of the LCR.

The room of the “League” regularly receives a phone call of a union representative asking whether Olivier Besancenot can come in his company for médiatiser a conflict. And the militants acknowledge that, on the markets, they from now on are listened. “Say to him that it was good with tele”, are intended they to say. But the new leader does not want to pack. “Stop saying that between me and Sarko nobody has any more there, they is false”, says it, conscious of the tended trap. It knows that the local elections favour hardly its organization and that on this occasion, PCF like the Greens will be able to still prove of their anchoring.

The launching of a new party anticapitalist, instead of the LCR, is always programmed for 2008. “It is felt that that bites, but it is not the beachcomber”, acknowledges Mr. Besancenot. The congress of the LCR is not any more but in one month: it would not like that waitings are disappointed – “a small” congress would not be with the height of those caused by its popularity. “Its success is a total artifact: it is the image of Besancenot which drains voices, not the LCR nor its project “, warns Mr. Tiberj. “What counts, they is not the surveys, but the electoral result”, answers the interested party. The appointment is already taken for 2012.

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