Céline Verzeletti

Verzeletti was born in February 1969 in Le Havre.^[1] She is the daughter of a railway worker who was a CGT activist and a teacher.^[2] She grew up in Juillannear Tarbes,^[3] in the Hautes-Pyrénées. She studied at the Marie-Curie high school in Tarbes. After a few difficult years, she passed the prison administration exam and became a prison guard. She was active in the Young Communists, then joined the French Communist Party.^[1]

From 2003 to 2012, she was general secretary of the CGT prison union.^[4] In 2015, she became a member of the CGT confederal office [fr], where she was responsible for Equality, Trade Union Freedoms and Coordination of Struggles issues. In 2021, she became co-general secretary of the Federal Union of State Trade Unions (UFSE), a group bringing together around 50,000 union members.^[5][6]

She is said to be quite close to NUPES and La France Insoumise, and announces, in a personal capacity, her participation in demonstrations organized by these political organizations, such as the march against the high cost of living in 2022.^[6][7]

In 2023, although she was not a candidate, she was mentioned among the people likely to succeed Philippe Martinez at the head of the confederation, during the 53rd congress in Clermont-Ferrand. Philippe Martinez, for his part, wanted Marie Buisson [fr] to succeed him^{[1][2][6][8][9]} but against all expectations it was another female trade unionist, Sophie Binet, who was elected as the new general secretary of the CGT.^[10]

For the 2024 French legislative election, she was invested by the New Popular Front in Paris's 15th constituency, allocated to La France Insoumise according to the coalition agreements.^[11] The outgoing deputy of this constituency, Danielle Simonnet, was not reinvested by her party like four other outgoing LFI deputies, who announced that they would maintain their candidacies.^[12] Danielle Simonnet was re-elected in the second round with 74.5% of the vote, against Céline Verzeletti.^[13]