Presidential 2022: "the future president should start by increasing salaries, by at least 100 or 200 euros"

Five months before the presidential election, what are the expectations of the 15,000 inhabitants of Romilly-sur-Seine, the second city of Aube? Despite a new dynamism in terms of employment, it is also marked by its industrial past. Emmanuel Macron raises a lot of hostility there.

It is one of the local prides. In recent years, surfing on the advent of the electric bicycle, the Cycleurope factory in Romilly-sur-Seine has picked up the slack with 220 permanent employees and the use of temporary workers. Between dog and wolf at 4:30 p.m., at the end of November, Benjamin is one of the rare employees to walk out to the site, to join his mother's vehicle. "Cycleurope, I've been there for 6 months and I feel good there" he says, "I like what we make, even when I work on the assembly line". But the question of salary comes very quickly.

Asked what he plans to vote for in April 2022, he has no hesitation. "Everything except Macron, he's a banker and I hadn't voted for him before, but this is worse! And the price of fuel which is still rising", breathes his mother. What should a president do to please them? Start by increasing salaries, by at least 100 or 200 euros. "The minimum wage is less than 1,300 euros, it is clearly insufficient". Purchasing power is indeed one of the subjects of this pre-election campaign. This is a major concern of the inhabitants of Romilly-sur-Seine, we feel it well over the testimonies and people met in the city.

The minimum wage, Magali, 53, does not even touch it anymore. Met on the market, the one who was yellow vest in the early hours of the movement lives with the specific solidarity allowance of 525 euros. She does temporary work from time to time, but a 50% handicap makes her life more and more complicated.

Cheeky, she talks about herself while offering me a coffee. "When I was little, I was on the hosier pickets with my father at Dupré then Politex. I voted for Laguiller as long as she was a candidate. Zemmour is educated but I settled on Marine. I don't I'm not racist, I'm patriotic. We fought so that the Christian religion does not take all the place. I would not like it to be another one. And then also, I do not want to vote Macron, she.

In 2017, even if they had granted him victory with 54.7% of their votes, the voters of Romilly-sur-Seine had trusted him less than the French in general, granting him 12 points less than at the start. national scale. 12 points offered to Marine Le Pen who had attracted 45.2% of voters in the second city of Aube.

The hostility raised by Emmanuel Macron is shared by many inhabitants of Romilly, in particular among certain historically very established railway workers. Since 2019, the Technicentre SNCF has moved and changed its nature. Installed in the Aéromia industrial zone, the new, ultra-modern Technicentre repairs parts for railway carriages, no longer TGVs as a whole. 250 people work there compared to 400 previously. Even if the starting conditions were correct, it inevitably leaves traces.

Under a cloudy sky, Sandrine finds me at the exit of the site. Orange chasuble and laughing face, she campaigns for Unsa, a minority union. She enjoys her role in logistics after 14 years of service. "I've never voted before, because my mother had a residence permit, and it wasn't her culture. At 40, I'm going to vote for the first time, to counter Macron! I blame him for having questioned our status as a railway worker. Since 2020, I have been part of SNCF Voyageurs, a public limited company. I will receive a pension calculated over the last 25 years instead of the last 6 months. The management of the health crisis with all the vaccine pressure does not satisfy me either."

In the land of socks, there was red

On the large boulevard that crosses the city and runs along the old SNCF technicentre, a billboard still calls for a visit to the Olympia store. A vestige of another era, because most of the brand's manufacturing has been transferred to Tricotage des Vosges. Renowned since the post-war period for its manufacture of socks and underwear, Romilly-sur-Seine has long remained a stronghold of the Communist Party. But relocations in textiles have changed everything. From the mid-1970s to the late 1990s, between 4,000 and 5,000 jobs were lost.

Dark suit, affable look, in the Communist Party office located rue de la Boule d'Or, the main street, the opposition municipal councilor Fethi Cheikh receives behind a window populated with posters of Fabien Roussel, the Communist candidate for the presidential. It is also the only figure of candidates already visible in the city.

"We had to deindustrialize! We should no longer be a production city. It makes us jump when today we are told that we have to produce here, but at the same time we are delighted that this debate is coming back. In the meantime, many "former workers have been left by the wayside. For example, former employees of the Olympia group who live on 900 to 1,000 euros when they contributed between the ages of 40 and 42", emphasizes Fethi Cheikh.

Like the Communist Party, the CGT of Romilly is convinced that the April 2022 vote will be on purchasing power, not on immigration. In his office, under the gaze of Che Guevara, the secretary of the Local Union Christophe Latrasse clarifies the request: "We need a minimum wage of at least 2,000 euros gross with contributions which finance social protection. And we must recreate jobs in industry. We were sold commerce and the tertiary sector, but it is not remunerative".

28% of the population below the poverty line

The fact is that there are more and more people in financial difficulty in Romilly-sur-Seine. 28% of the population lives below the poverty line. Some were born here but others arrived more recently from the Paris region.

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Late morning, icy wind, facing the popular relief committee, chairs are waiting outside for the beneficiaries because the premises are cramped. Familiarity and outspoken rigor, Serge is a volunteer and a former railway worker. He organizes the distributions.

"713 people are regularly helped here. 45% are under 15 years old. Before, we came out of precariousness in one generation, now it's more like two, even two and a half. We are apolitical and non-religious", recalls Serge , “so obviously, I will not tell you anything about the vote. This does not prevent us from being goads for the public authorities.

"I have already seen that we offer a contract of 4 hours to 20 km to a person who does not have a car. And when she refuses, we call her lazy! The majority of people who come to us would prefer not to no longer participate in our distributions," adds Serge.

9.5% of the active population unemployed

Faced with this growing poverty, the mayor, Eric Vuillemin, LR in place since 2008 wonders. Support from Eric Ciotti, "because he has a clear line", he has not yet won the framework of Nicolas Sarkozy above his desk.

According to the mayor, it is necessary "to increase low wages by reducing social charges, so as to create a gap between the incomes of those who work and social aid".

Former scholarship holder, Eric Vuillemin is convinced that "a minority of our fellow citizens find it difficult to work again when there are jobs".

According to INSEE, in Romilly-sur-Seine, the unemployment rate stood at 9.5% of the active population in the second quarter of 2021, against 7.5% nationally. Economic development is at the heart of municipal concerns and it has largely supported the current flagship, Le Coq sportif.

Le Coq as flagship, a planned medical glove factory

Relaunched in Romilly-sur-Seine since 2010 with Swiss assets, the brand with the tricolor rooster equips many champions and its sales have picked up well after the Covid. Today, a hundred jobs drive the factory, from design to the assembly of prestige clothing or small series. And major works were launched this fall to expand the site and employ 80 additional people by January 2023 for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The city is also supporting a medical glove factory project with local shareholders. "It's 17 million euros of private investment that will avoid buying gloves from the Chinese!" enthusiastically announces Eric Vuillemin. It will generate 110 jobs, he promises, and it will come out of the ground in 2023.

"The recovery plan just needs to help it get started," says local business manager Emeric Oudin, a dealer in agricultural equipment. Facilitator of the center for young local leaders, this dynamic Romillon also became its national president.

Emeric Oudin does not comment on his preferences. "Whoever he is, the future head of state will also have to introduce a social or environmental VAT on products manufactured elsewhere or with lower ecological standards than those in France. This is the only way, in my opinion, to guarantee competitiveness of French factories, therefore consolidating employment".

But how can you be sure that the jobs created will be suitable for the local workforce? On the side of aspirants to work, doubt is allowed. At least as much as on the name of the candidate they will choose for the presidency.

"Studying is expensive"

Zoe is 19 years old. Brown curls, very posed, followed by the Local Mission as part of the youth guarantee scheme. She did a year of civic service after the baccalaureate. Momentarily on an internship in a clothing store, the young woman admits that she "takes the time to explore to be sure because studies are expensive. I think I would like to be a social worker but the school is at Reims, it's complicated!" In the blur on the policy, Zoé is nevertheless applied. She watched the Republican debate to get an idea.

While a drizzle is not far away, next to the Gambetta school, in the city center, Loubna, 39, also talks about her expectations by dropping off her daughter. French born in Romilly in a family of Moroccan origin, she is a stay-at-home mother for the moment but she would like to work again. If she was able to do a skills assessment at Greta, the closest training in office automation is in Troyes and she lives alone with her children. So it's the unknown on that side. On the other hand, on the presidential side, Loubna already has a fixed idea. "As I am swarthy, I have no choice. I'm afraid of racism so it will be Macron".

"The President took good care of us!"

Few are those who already claim support for the current president, but Fabrice Bon is one of them. Smiling at the stoves of his trattoria, one of the last two restaurants open in the evening in the city center, he describes as “tremendous” the government aid granted during the confinements. Where other businesses have not found this sufficient, Fabrice is grateful. "Emmanuel Macron took good care of us, so I'm going to vote for him. I didn't do it in 2017 because I didn't know him, I preferred to abstain."

"For the moment, the Romillons are like the French, complainers! They are considering a protest vote more than anything else. At this stage, no one really knows the programs of the candidates. We just assess them in terms of personality," analyzes Fabrice.

So many people met, so many visions, in an electoral campaign that has only just begun. But we can see it clearly, in this working-class city of Aube, affected by deindustrialization, the current president does not currently have the favor of the majority of Romillons.