From shadow to light: Marylise Léon, who takes the helm of the CFDT at 46 on Wednesday, had been number two in the union for five years. Described as “decided”, “pugnacious”, she will have to make her mark after Laurent Berger, and facing the charismatic leader of the CGT, Sophie Binet.
Born on November 23, 1976 in Le Mans, Ms. Léon will be the second woman to head the Confederation, after Nicole Notat, who led it from 1992 to 2002.
Deputy Secretary General since 2018, she was responsible for strategic files such as unemployment insurance and inter-union relations. She represented the CFDT within the Pact of the power to live, an alliance of more than sixty organizations acting for the convergence of ecological and social issues.
She embodies on the line a continuity with Laurent Berger, who says he has agreed with her for at least a year and a half to hand over the baton to him in June 2023.
“She is ready. She has had time to compose her teams which are partly the same (…) She has a good aura in the house, she has exceptional know-how. She is someone good, who has character, who is not going to let himself be eaten every morning”, praises Mr. Berger to AFP.
The President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, corroborates: she is “in the same vein (as Laurent Berger). At the same time very determined, listening, a reforming will, a form of requirement (…) I think that it is someone who will count, as Berger counted”, greets the former Minister of Labor.
On the side of the unions, Simon Duteil (Solidaires), who has rubbed shoulders with her a lot in recent months within the inter-union, portrays a “pugnacious” woman, who has a “real listening”, “a good ability to work together “.
A government source describes a “tough business” manager, who “knows her files perfectly, hyper-structured”.
She is “a woman whose knowledge of the world of work is remarkable”, judged the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt on Radio J.
She has a “poker face”, image of an old traveling companion. “She can be very tough with a smile. It’s going to be terrible for Emmanuel Macron, she’s not going to be easy to walk around,” he anticipates.
This source also observes that “his center of gravity is (…) greener than Berger”, noting that “it’s his job”. “Berger gradually became one. She was born with ecology,” she sums up.
A graduate in chemistry, the one who says she is “fascinated by the plant world” even if she does not have “a green thumb” notably worked as an environmental safety manager in a consulting firm.
In 2003, shortly after the AZF disaster, she was hired by the study and training institute of the Chemistry and Energy Federation of the CFDT to support trade union representatives in companies on safety and environmental issues.
From 2009, she was responsible within this federation for occupational health issues, and for monitoring the chemical, glass and cardboard paper branches. In 2014, she joined the Confederation as Confederal National Secretary, in charge of sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, industrial and energy policy, social dialogue. And became Deputy Secretary General in 2018.
A course of “expert”, more than “activist”, she agrees, what she differs from the new general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, former activist at the Unef and the PS.
A connoisseur of social issues, the consultant Pierre Ferracci predicts a “beautiful emulation” between the two leaders, stressing that if we cannot yet judge the space that Marylise Léon will occupy, “Sophie Binet was quick to occupy the his”, with a talk cash that hits the mark in the media.
Asked about her on Friday, Ms. Binet said she was “very confident for the future”, having the feeling that Ms. Léon is “frank, efficient”. “If we don’t agree, we tell each other things and if we agree we move on”.
A mother of two, Ms. Léon enjoys knitting and half-marathoning – disciplines that require endurance and patience.
06/19/2023 14:56:22 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP