The deputy La France insoumise multiplies the speeches against the decline of the legal retirement age to 64 years based on her life as a former cleaning lady. Pride of the movement of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the elected representative of Val-de-Marne annoys in the ranks of the presidential majority.
In the hemicycle, Rachel Kéké launched it “loud and strong” at the macronie, in the midst of a debate on pension reform. “For you who are for retirement at 64, you do not understand the hard life of people and you have no right to bring the people who hold France up to their knees,” she pleaded.
With some success: since this ex-housekeeper brought arduous jobs into the National Assembly, her interventions have burst the screen and accumulated hundreds of thousands of views on social networks, while annoying in the ranks of the presidential majority.
“It’s my strength to know real life,” said Rachel Kéké, interviewed by BFMTV.com. “I am elected to make heard those of whom we never speak and who make France go round every day.”
“Not for a moment doubted my abilities”
Her career as a former housekeeper at the Ibis-Batignolles in Paris, which brought down the hotel giant Accor after a 22-month strike, is unanimous among her rebellious colleagues. The one who beat the former Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu in the last legislative elections relies on her experience to scrap against the reform.
“She is incredible”, welcomes Éric Coquerel, the LFI president of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly. “We are all very proud.” MP Aurélie Trouvé salutes “a very great union leader”, when her colleague Caroline Fiat praises her “words so just, so true, magnificent to hear in the people’s house”.
Proof of the confidence of her movement: this mother of 5 children has been appointed as one of the leaders of the rebellious group to lead the battle against pension reform.
“I did not doubt my abilities for a moment,” says Rachel Kéké. “I fought against Accor so I’m not afraid of macronie.”
“I knew that the text was technical but I do not need technicality to explain people’s lives and show the consequences of retirement at 64,” says the MP for Val-de-Marne.
“Who among you has ever had a hard job?”
Result: very calibrated speeches, always posted by his parliamentary collaborators, several of whom are former journalists, and who are very shared on the networks.
“I follow her on TikTok,” remarks Toukara Kaoundé, one of Rachel Kéké’s former trade union companions, who recently met her during the trial of a trade unionist.
“It’s very powerful for us to see our fights relayed so much,” she said. “People who don’t know anything about our jobs can now understand.”
Among the speeches of his former colleague, one particularly marked the Macronist deputies. “To all the ministers and deputies who are in favor of making people work until the age of 64, (…) who among you has already done a difficult job?” governess during the opening of the debates on the reform in the hemicycle. Remarks greeted by a standing ovation from his camp.
Macronists who do not want to “overact”
On the benches of the majority, the discomfort was palpable during this arrest.
“We knew she was going to talk. We all said to ourselves that we weren’t going to overreact,” says a Renaissance deputy.
It must be said that a fairly similar scene had taken place a few days earlier in the Social Affairs Committee. “You despise the people with empty measures”, then accuses the forties, targeting the executive and the majority. “You despise women, seniors, the disabled.”
“No one here has ever made 40 beds in a hotel,” says the former maid. “But if, but if”, answer him elected macronists. “We were washing cars”, even launches one of them. “Send me your resume, I’ll see,” bounces, scathing, Rachel Kéké.
Response from Fadila Khattabi, the Renaissance president of the commission: “No one despises anyone here. We are all elected by the people.”
“Fed up with his moral lessons”
In the ranks of the macronie, we do not appreciate these sequences. Rachel Kéké’s speeches are all the more messy as Emmanuel Macron is regularly accused of contempt and disconnection by his political opponents.
“We are here to lay down the law, not to ‘live my life’. We are fed up at the end of his moral lessons”, annoys a heavyweight of the presidential majority.
Critics, however, are mezza voce at Renaissance. No deputy really dares to criticize his speeches frontally. It must be said that the president has instructed his lieutenants to show “humility” and pedagogy” on pension reform.
There is therefore no question of attacking the symbol that Rachel Kéké can represent. Only the deputy of Yvelines Nadia Hai pointed out to him in the hemicycle that it was she “who lacked respect for the courses” of the elected Renaissance.
“I know I’m bothering and it’s normal,” replies Rachel Kéké. “The Macronists are embarrassed when they are shown the consequences of 64 years.”
The parliamentarian assures, however, that “lawyers” and “doctors” of the presidential majority come to see her to know the realities of her former profession – without naming names.
The encouragement of an RN deputy
Another proof for her that her career recalls “the harsh reality of life” in the Assembly: she recounts a scene in the canteen of the Palais-Bourbon, a few weeks after her arrival in the hemicycle. A lady sits next to her during her lunch. “Your election makes me happy. You deserve to be there,” she whispers in his ear.
Rachel Kéké says she realized a few days later that it was actually an elected RN – again, without wanting to specify her identity. On the side of Marine Le Pen’s group, however, we do not see who it could be.
“We are deputies with our personal stories, but I would like us not to be used to say that we have succeeded in having people of the people elected”, even regrets Lisette Pollet, who became an RN deputy last June, after years doing housework in a primary school in Drôme. “We were all elected by the people. It’s too simplistic to send her back each time to what she was doing before.”
“We defend people, perhaps, but, above all, we slow down parliamentary work”, still annoys the elected RN.
“Everything cannot be summed up in our experience”
In the socialist ranks, where some watch with circumspection the speeches of the rebellious deputy, some are not tender and invite her not to spend “five years in a loop on the same subject”.
“We are a deputy before being a teacher, a worker or a farmer. Everything cannot be summed up in our experience”, retorts an elected PS, little fan of the rebellious.
The argument goes badly for the rebellious Caroline Fiat, caregiver, who regularly takes over from her former colleagues in the hemicycle. “I have already been asked to stop doing Victor Hugo,” says the MP. “But it’s my life and that’s what makes me who I am today. People feel like I speak like them and that’s also what makes Rachel so loved”
Rachel Kéké defends herself from limiting herself to her only journey. Since her arrival at the National Assembly, she has expressed herself on the minimum wage, unworthy housing and is preparing to fight against the future immigration bill which will soon arrive in the hemicycle.
“I speak on all subjects with always the desire to talk about the most fragile, the invisible”, asserts the deputy.
With an advantage for the movement: getting away from the image often associated with its fellow MEPs, some of whom are political professionals – the rebellious group also includes a large part executives and intellectual professions in its ranks.
“We have a plural group”, summarizes the deputy LFI Hadrien Clouet, sociologist. “Very technical and specialist people and others who do proletarian interventions like Rachel’s.” Enough to allow the movement to alternate between “anger” in the hemicycle and “substantive work”, in full reflection of the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the strategy to adopt in the face of the pension reform, the examination of which is ends this Friday at the Assembly.
