SURVEY – Marine Le Pen is at its highest level in the voting intentions of hospital officials. Exasperated, caregivers and nurses are seduced by the speech.
Faced with the large influx of flu patients in the hospital, the Minister of Health recently acknowledged that the emergency services were “at the limits of their capacities”. The number of hospitals to declare themselves “in tension” in fact quickly increased from 142 to 192. Then the Minister of Health suddenly indicated that the “pressure” had been “released” a little. Thanks to the implementation of its emergency measures. But these reassuring words, some hospital staff have difficulty hearing them.
This is the case of Sabrina Aurora, a young medical intern at the Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP). Member of the Left Party, this future practitioner judges that the action of the minister during the flu epidemic is limited to “a communication operation”. His video posted on YouTube on January 12 is a hit on the web. It has already exceeded 8 million views on the social network Facebook. Inside, she humorously berates the tenant of avenue Duquesne (Paris): “Hello Madame Touraine, it’s me again, it’s the intern… So that’s how we make a little com plan around influenza ! But it’s a state of emergency every day at the Mme Tourraine hospital! Come on, let me tell you! ».
This is followed by stories of the chaotic working conditions of his colleagues at the hospital. Nurses who are always asked for more, but with always fewer resources and fewer staff.
This hospitable pressure cooker is about to implode. The origin of the problem is known. It is due to the increasing financial pressure in hospital services. The president of the National Infirmary Coordination (CNI) regrets that school heads now only have their eyes fixed on budget lines. Faced with this untenable situation for health professionals, 13 nurses’ organizations will demonstrate on January 24 in the capital. But there has already been a warning shot.
Anne Depoire, President of the CNI: We concretely see non-replacements of departures. Same for maternity and sick leave…»
On November 8, for the first time in almost thirty years, 18 nursing organizations united to denounce the deterioration of working conditions, studies and remuneration facing the profession. The same movement of anger and fed up on which the National Front (FN) hopes to surf. Marine Le Pen is even in full operation seduction with hospital officials.
fuel in the hospital
Hospital sociologist Frédéric Pierru comments: “The National Front has broken with a form of Thatcherism and ultra-liberalism once defended by Jean-Marie Le Pen. With the arrival of Florian Philippot, it now presents itself as the only party defending the welfare state and public services, and therefore the hospital”. For the rest, Marine Le Pen has only to let the feeling of downgrading of civil servants do its job. “And in the hospital, she has fuel,” said the political scientist.
Frederic Pierru, sociologist: If we add to the feeling of downgrading a layer of religion, secularism, and insecurity, you have the explosive cocktail …»
The task is all the easier for the FN candidate, that next to her in the polls, François Fillon worries the civil servants. Remember that the former Prime Minister plans to eliminate 500,000 of them during his five-year term. This measure and others are described as “official bashing” by some members of the profession, such as Simon Taland, secretary general of the National Union of Nurse Anesthetists (SNIA). The latest survey from the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po (Cevifop), published a few days ago, therefore comes as a surprise. It shows that François Fillon obtains his best results in categories B (that of nurses) and C of the Public Hospital Service (FPH) with respectively 25% and 22.7% of voting intentions. During the right-wing Primary, he had also promised to make the civil servants work more, but without earning more. It’s surprising, but the hospital officials obviously don’t hold it against him. Except that Marine Le Pen does even better.
Simon Taland, general secretary of the SNIA: Me when I work on the weekend I am paid like any other day. It’s unbearable all this official bashing…»
Marine Le Pen is a hit in category C
The turn to the right of this electorate is indeed underway. Still according to figures from Cevifop, the president of the FN is at her highest level in category C of the Public Hospital Service (FPH) with 29% of voting intentions. It is therefore the first of the polls in this part of the FPH, composed in particular of caregivers. Its voice shares have doubled compared to 2012. The trend seems to be the same among nurses and all staff at the bottom of the hospital hierarchy.
But these figures do not surprise union officials in the profession. Simon Taland even evokes a release of speech in his ranks. Some of these remarks deeply shocked him.
“The attacks were traumatic for everyone, including the hospital workers. In rest rooms, this year I heard questions about multiculturalism in France and immigration. Other colleagues have squarely pointed the finger at the deviant behavior of certain people from other countries who would not like to integrate”. So many amalgams that we did not hear before, according to him. And this speech also benefits from relays in the corridors of hospitals.
The ailments of the hospital are getting worse
The tip of the FN iceberg in the hospital is today represented by the “Collective of Health Users”. Created less than a year ago by Marine Le Pen, its mission is to “define a health policy at the service of all French people”. This involves, among other things, an overhaul of the hospital system. And faced with the disarray of hospital staff, the FN does not spare its means. Among the five founding members of the Collective, we note the presence of two former PHs and a maxillofacial surgeon practicing at the University Hospital of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).
The latter, Professor Franck Boutault, tells what pushed him into the arms of the FN. A Gaullist activist in his youth, he admits to being “very very panicked by the migratory invasion”. “It is visible even in our waiting rooms. This shocks me deeply,” he adds. But for this doctor, the current tragedy in France is unemployment. “I also see all these poor young workers who come to the hospital for treatment because they have no other options,” he laments. Also exasperated by his conditions of exercise, he reveals the strategy of his collective. “It’s not the frontal attack. She won’t work. And there is an ethic, even in political combat. The hospital must remain a place of sanctuary”, he specifies. Dr. Boutault indicates rather that the Collective has vocation to make small in a decentralized way. FN collectives in all health regions should therefore soon see the light of day. “Inside, stakeholders from public hospitals will be associated with those from the private sector”, he underlines. FN activists therefore intend to cast a wide net for the 2017 presidential election. It must be said that nurses in public hospitals alone represent more than 320,000 voters (DREES).
Many of them no longer have confidence in other political parties. This is the case of Professor Franck Boutault: “Right and left, these are the same objectives, to do more with the least possible money”, deplores the hospital practitioner. Today, putting an FN ballot in the ballot box has become a membership vote for this exasperated doctor. Just like Julien, 35 years old. This former left-wing nurse has joined the ranks of supporters of the National Front (FN). Disgusted by the other political formations, he thinks that only the FN can save the hospital and the Social Security. In the meantime, he converted to liberal exercise, preferring to flee the very difficult working conditions in health establishments.
Resistance is organized in the hospital
Finally, faced with the entry of the National Front into the hospital, the resistance is organized, according to party officials. Hospital directors, for example, still prohibit Marine Le Pen from entering them, if only for visits, says Professor Boutault. Moreover, despite their loss of influence, the traditional unions (Sud, CGT, etc.) are still trying to convey a usually left-wing discourse (defense of the 35-hour week, etc.)
And he still has an attentive ear in the profession. Young people who are more inclined to denounce the FN program are, for example, more sensitive to it. In a recent article, Clément Gautier, president of the National Federation of Nursing Students (FNESI) wrote “student organizations will have to be the bulwark against obscurantist and demagogic discourse”. Contacted by whydoctor, he specifies, however, that he was not citing “any political party directly” but does not deny either that the Front National could be targeted by this statement. On the day of the big demonstration on November 8, he also did not hesitate to share Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s tweet of support for health and social workers, “who today denounce budget cuts and working conditions”.
In the Cevifop survey, the latter has also reached its highest level in category B of the FPH with 21.3% of voting intentions. But also its lowest level in category C of this same FPH with 13.7% of voting intentions, “which says a lot about the homogeneity of values within the public health system”, ironically notes the Center . Faced with the crisis in their profession, hospital officials seem simply disoriented. And the presidential candidates have understood this since they talk more and more about health during political debates. But maybe it’s already too late…
Read the rest of our survey:
Julien: “The FN denounces what I see every day”
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