In addition the number of members increases

The scene is happening early June to the local association of the UFC-Que choose of Deux-Sèvres. Serious air accentuated by fine salt and pepper beard, Alain Bazot relaxes quickly in assistance, press in a small room of the hotel of the associative life of Niort. Come and the Department of the Poitou-Charentes region, it is there to greet with dignity "national President", which the visit is part of the campaign "Water and reconciliation 2013", which mixes national and regional events. This initiative move it a few hours later in a farm of the poitevin Marsh and, in the evening, at Poitiers, to discuss with "irrigation" in the hotel area. All enamelled meetings with media, including a session photos fields.

At Niort, this lawyer of forty-seven years, which continues to teach law at Dijon, welcomed the work of Ant of the 3,000 volunteers of the association, often retirees or young lawyers. As the first movement of consumer quadrille territory with its 170 local associations. The upwelling of information from the network are also "That choose" honey, the magazine published by the Federal Union of consumers. Without being a born orator, Alain Bazot finds the right words to talk to these activists proud to be a counter-power: "The General Directorate for competition want us our investigators," he says, a few days before be re-elected President.

The monthly, megaphones and cow milk

After GMOs or mad cow disease, the hot folders have multiplied since he took office in 2003: effect of the euro on prices in large surfaces, overhaul of banking rates, mass arrival of new litigation related to telephony and the Internet, price and quality of the water... And politicians, starting with Jacques Chirac or Nicolas Sarkozy, have understood the echo that were the subjects of consumer opinion.

Leader, UFC will therefore feel the wind. Outside the associations related to family or trade union movement, it is one that has "the mesh territorial the denser, more members and means", confirms Luc Chatel, UMP MP author of an important report on issues of consumption (1). In addition, the number of members increases. It is passed to 111.300 in 2005 ( 15 in one year), who are at least 26 euros of contribution per year. "We are in an ascending phase since our actions against mobile phone operators and banks," said Nicole Perez, specialist in the financial sector to the national Office and Chair of the Deux-Sèvres.

Second flag to green, the figures of the monthly "That choose". According to the group, broadcast it is not verified by the OJD might reach best 510,000 this year (an increase of 26 in two years), with nearly 450,000 subscribers. Result: "only choose" is one of the main titles for the defence of consumers in Europe, after "Which" in Britain and "consumenten" to the Netherlands. All readers are not members, and vice versa also. Behind this success is the know-how of Jean-Louis Redon, Director-General of the association, a pro of the press and the mailings. "The function of the journal is to be a counter-power, a hair tickling distributors, manufacturers and public authorities sometimes," explains Jean-Paul Geai, editor, used for television broadcasts. The monthly "60 million consumers", outpaced in subscriptions but who is still playing in kiosk, this field carries. "Consumerism has a public, a readership, with the malignant purchase or citizen buying," said Eric Briat, Director General of the national Institute of Consumer Affairs (INC), the public institution that publishes this magazine with a more measured and less militant content.

A flat however, the ambivalence of the UFC-Que choose, both the association of defence and media group, is wrong with some. If its tests and test-beds represent an undeniable added value, poorly rated manufacturers argue that the defects in their products are mounted hairpin in the comments or titles to "sell the paper. They however prefer to unburden himself in "off" and the trial are very rare.

Not content to be a case of media resonance for the Federation, without equivalent in other associations, the magazine he also provides most of its budget. This growth is the appointment: 18 last year, to EUR 24 million and 28 million expected this year.

all with no advertising and public subsidies that representing 2.45 of the total. Double guarantee of independence. Which requires the pooling of the budgets of the heavier tests with other international associations of consumers.

This "economic model" sits the positioning of "watchdog" American of the UFC, a "watchdog" privileging the denunciation and attack on consultation (2). Phrases such as "report of forces", "deterrence", "attack angle", "empty chair policy" or "slamming the door" are part of common vocabulary. Critics speak brinksmanship and maximalism, and fear that the asphyxia the substantive work of the other associations.

In fact, its position is offset in the landscape French, more focused on the manufacture of consensus with arbitration of public authorities. The organizations recognized at the national level they are 20 sit in many instances. At the Medef, considering that the negotiated agreement and self-regulation are not part of the objectives of the UFC - that choice. Companies echo on the side of Jean-Claude Nasse, une General General Association is distinguished in that it refuses to participate in any concerted action likely to lead to an agreement. " Other movements play the card of pragmatism or concerted regulation, and believe much more concrete benefits for the consumer, as Reine Mader to the Patagonia (consumption, housing and living environment), get the second most important organization purely consumerist, or Christian Huard, the Adéic (Association of defence, education and consumer information) of Union origin. For example, in telecommunications (see page 23).

New interest in the environment

The UFC, she says that she can afford to not sit in many of these instances that use the forces of the associations. But this did not prevent after showing teeth, whether deburring. Thus it multiplies bilateral contacts and it participates in common fronts, for the action group ("class action") or the global licence, for example. "It is sometimes grilled with some politicians, but then it is enabled to correct shooting", says a competitor lobbyist. "It has leaders a little stiff neck, but who have understood that they could not get back everyone at a time." "They are making progress," advance even a farm manager.

Under the leadership of Alain Bazot, the Federation has also strengthened its team of lobbyists, "a service of expertise for ground positions and implement actions". In the future, it wants to extend its analysis to the field of ethics and fairness, to have its own angles of attack; and also to develop its action both at EU level as local. It is to "strengthen our network of proximity, which would bring us a real support for our political struggles", says its Chairman. To this end, a position of mission is in the process of creation, supporting lobbyists consumers and not only "litigeurs"...

The permanent mission of supporting the thematic actions decided by the Board of Directors are: competition in mobile telephony, but also access to culture via the global licence, bank rates, water pricing and water resource conservation, the fight against obesity, efficacy of drugs, not to mention the group action, of course. The list is not exhaustive. It is organized around the three axes of the three-year programme 2005-2008 consumer access to universal service, fair prices and a healthy and honest environment.

Behind these initiatives lies the concern to respond to the arrival of a new generation of consumer activists, interested in the economy and sustainable development. "I think that the most significant change of the UFC in the recent period is openness to environmental issues, noticeable since the mid-1990s", actually find Géraldine Pflieger, author of a thesis on the issue. Alain Bazot speaks of "transcend the pure consumer interest." Bearing in mind the fundamental (price, quality, hunting the scam), the Organization advocates therefore "an act of consumption thought."

Many observers wonder if the UFC, expanding its spectrum will not develop into a machine of war anti-entreprises. It defends. And claims to fight for the respect of competition and not against the market economy. The statutes also prohibit combine responsibilities in his breast with a political or Trade Union mandate. Niort, in any case, volunteers have the belief to be representative of all sensitivities.