"In mortal danger," several public institutions, including Public Health France, ANSES, and ADEME, will demonstrate on July 2

On Tuesday, June 23, employees of several public institutions warned of the "danger of death" they faced with the proposed reforms to their status and functions, and postponed their demonstration to July 2 due to the heatwave.

"Our agencies and establishments are all experiencing the same things: the dismantling of statuses, the elimination of jobs, the increase in the number of contract workers, repeated mergers, the erosion of subsidies, budget cuts," listed Lise Soulier, CGT representative at the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN), during a press briefing organized by videoconference.

A demonstration was initially planned for 13:30 PM in front of the National Assembly but has been postponed to July 2nd at 13:30 PM at Les Invalides in Paris.

"These repeated attacks are deteriorating our working conditions, making our staff more precarious and preventing us from carrying out our missions, particularly public service missions," she added, regretting that the government is, in her view, "serving the interests of the private sector and destroying our public services piece by piece by attacking state agencies."

During the press conference, several representatives from different organizations and public institutions gathered in the "Agencies in Struggle!" collective spoke: Caue (Council for Architecture, Urban Planning and the Environment), Ademe (Agency for the Environment and Energy Management), Public Health France, Anses (National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety)...

They reported layoffs, budget cuts, and forced relocations due to the local merger project between Ademe and the regional directorates for the environment, planning, and housing (Dreal), which operate under the authority of the regional prefect.

"All these health agencies were created precisely to clearly separate evaluation from management, and to allow politicians or decision-makers to make fully informed decisions. Today, questioning public operators, including health and environmental agencies, is a denial of history," stated Olivier Catelinois, epidemiologist at Public Health France.

For Christophe Girard, of the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT), there is a "social and health emergency for the inhabitants, for the territories, but also for the staff of our agencies who are in serious difficulty and sometimes in danger of death".