A former journalist and founder of alternative newspaper Fakir, in 2016 French filmmaker François Ruffin drew comparisons with Michael Moore for his acclaimed satirical documentary Merci Patron! (Thanks, Boss!). The film follows textile workers facing a factory closure as they chase down the billionaire CEO of their employer’s parent company, Bernard Arnault — today the world’s wealthiest man. That same year, Ruffin helped launch the Nuit Debout movement, in which protesters occupied city squares in opposition to pro-employer labor reforms.

Ruffin soon also made his mark on institutional politics. First elected to the National Assembly in 2017, Ruffin was reelected to a second five-year term last June. A member of La France Insoumise’s parliamentary group, Ruffin is known for his independent streak and his insistence on winning over voters in rural and peripheral areas that have seen growing support for the far right, like his native region of Picardy, in the country’s post-industrial North.

Today, he is fighting President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to increase the retirement age — a key attack on the French welfare model. A few hours ahead of a rally against the reform, Ruffin sat down with Jacobin’s Cole Stangler at a café near the National Assembly in Paris. They discussed the pension reform bill, the state of La France Insoumise and its broad parliamentary alliance, how the Left should appeal to voters outside large cities, and why Ruffin embraces the ideal of “revolutionary reformism.”