The Eye of the Archives. 2001: François Bayrou among the black faces in Creutzwald

[article from the Républicain Lorrain, September 7, 2001]

A trip to La Houve, the Forbach Eurozone, and the Pompey steel conversion zone yesterday. A day in the Meuse region today. François Bayrou 's Lorraine tour ends with this conclusion: " We cannot say that the Lorraine question is resolved ."

Better late than never. Former minister François Bayrou has just had a revelation: the chic neighborhoods of Paris, where politics are made, are not France. From now on, the increasingly less virtual presidential candidate, the possible third man, wants to stroll, breathe, and feel the provinces. He wants to listen, hear, and, he says, give a sign to the provincials. " Because we need to be where the people are, to live part of their lives with them ," he explains. Imitating Blair and Clinton, the president of the New UDF has just begun a journey across France, in a bus bearing the colors of "human France." Having left Strasbourg, he was in Lorraine yesterday to take the temperature of the "people at the bottom." Better than that... François Bayrou has hit rock bottom. He spent the morning with the HBL miners at the Houve shaft in Creutzwald. In overalls, a helmet, and a lamp, he found himself 1,200 meters underground. After the traditional "Glück auf." It was his first underground experience, his first encounter with blackfaces at work. " There is humanity, solidarity, intelligence among the miners, " he exclaims, back in the open. Particularly well briefed by Charles Stirnweiss, the UDF mayor of Forbach, François Bayrou is an expert on the socio-economic situation of the coalfield, the closure of the mines in 2005, and the challenge of reindustrialization. " I don't have a miracle recipe; others did, and they caused considerable damage, " he comments. A slap in the face to the left, to François Mitterrand and his false promises of 1981.

Checkbook

Conscientious to the tips of his nails, François Bayrou talks at length with the miners' unions to arrive at this conclusion: " We cannot say that the Lorraine question is settled ." Not quite an empty phrase, because he knows this region well. He shows it in his own way as an agrégé de lettres who has done work on Joan of Arc. Farewell, Meuse, sleepy and sweet to my childhood, who dwell in the meadows, where you flow quietly. Meuse, farewell: I have begun my departure for new countries where you do not flow , he declaims. Farewell to the Meuse by Charles Péguy. Meanwhile, there is a stir in his bus decorated with Breton and Alsatian landscapes, a view of Nanterre and a myriad of young faces. His entourage recalls, as if nothing had happened, that before Bayrou, only Chirac and Mitterrand had ever gone down the mine. They became heads of state. Balladur was content with a 200-meter descent. We reassure ourselves as best we can.

On the pit floor, Bayrou grapples with questions that come from all sides. Like the problem of the victims of Moyeuvre-Grande. " I'm here to listen, I don't come with the state's checkbook ," he says. At least it's frank, without any waffle. And he adds, with a broad smile: " I'm not President of the Republic. At least not for the moment ." François Bayrou is decidedly optimistic.

Antonella KREBS.

[article from the Républicain Lorrain, September 7 2001]

Mr. François Bayrou, president of the New UDF, descended yesterday morning to the bottom, to the La Houve Exploitation Unit. He was welcomed by Messrs. Alain Rollet, general manager of HBL, Christian Naud, deputy head of the Unit, in the presence of Senator Mayor André Bohl, and the miners accompanying him to the Albert 7/2/2 working on floor 500. Coming back up from the bottom, Mr. Bayrou declared himself impressed. " I take my hat off, "my helmet" to the miners " and note " the solidarity, the intelligence, the sense of responsibility for safety. " This presidential candidate, who confides having come to see France " from below, " emphasizes " today we need to live with people, even if only for a few hours or a day to hear the words they say. This changes the humanity of the countryside ." And Mr. Bayrou, to whom the unions submitted motions concerning the miners' pension problems, praised the guides as exceptional in substance. " It's important to see the quality, the determination deployed to achieve this level of work. "

[Readers' letters from the Républicain Lorrain, September 28 2001]

From Mrs. M. Pfister, Créhange .- " How election periods can change a man! François Bayrou among the black faces, well, well, and to make it more real and more powerful, he painted his face with coal dust. He came to take the temperature of the people downstairs.

Suddenly, this dear François had a thought for Lorraine and this Eastern Moselle where the mines have stopped their operations one after the other. Today, he says, and I quote: "I give the miners a hard blow" and adds "that he needs to live with the people, even if only for a few hours, to hear the words they say." Yet not so long ago, these same people demonstrated, they even went to Paris to demand their rights and shout out their concerns, to make themselves heard, but there was no one to listen to the words they had to say. In the 70s, another François (Mitterrand) also came to pay a little visit to the miners.

He had promised them the earth, assured them that he would do everything to keep the mines in operation. In 1981, he returned and had in his bag full of false promises. Result... by 2005, there will be only vestiges and museums to remember that this dear old Lorraine had a lot to do with it when we talk about the Trente Glorieuses. We can say that the "Lorraine" question is far from being resolved and that it is not enough to go down to the bottom to appease the black faces and glean votes. It takes much more than that. "Gluck auf" ".