four questions about the new body wanted by Emmanuel Macron
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Emmanuel Macron had announced its creation in an interview with the regional press at the beginning of June, in the middle of the campaign for the legislative elections: the National Council for Refoundation (CNR) opens on Thursday, September 8, in Marcoussis, in Essonne. The Head of State will kick off at the National Rugby Center around 9:30 a.m., before interventions by the Governor of the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau, the first President of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici , and the President of the High Council for the Climate, Corinne Le Quéré.
At the initiative of this “new method” and the maneuver to try to convince the last undecided, the President of the Republic specified that the meeting was part of “a first sequence of several days”to which must follow “regular meetings”. In the afternoon, Elisabeth Borne will lead a meeting to determine the projects and their implementation. “The will is to go fast”said the Elysée, hoping for a “very quick start” of the first thematic projects so that they materialize “in 2023”.
“Macronist gadget” for Bruno Retailleau, leader of Les Républicains senators, “bla-bla season 2” for Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France insoumise, LFI), a ” thing “ whose Hervé Marseille, Senator Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) of Hauts-de-Seine, questions the usefulness… Not yet installed, the initiative is criticized and shunned by some of the actors who were invited to it, starting with the opposition parties and some unions. Here are four questions about what we know about this brand new CNR.
What does the concept cover according to the executive?
Since the beginning of June, Emmanuel Macron has sketched out the outlines of what the CNR should be, without going into details. The idea put forward is to bring together representatives of the political, economic, social and associative forces of the country, as well as citizens drawn by lot. These exchanges should make it possible to reflect on major reforms on themes that Mr. Macron considers to have carried during the presidential campaign: full employment and industrialization, school, health, “aging well” and the transition ecological.
Moreover, this CNR wants to be, as the government spokesman, Olivier Véran then explained, a “new method” more than news ” structure “. “It is not a question of recreating a structure similar to the ESEC [Conseil économique social et environnemental]but to find a new method to meet the challenges posed by this new era”, confirms the Elysée.
The name chosen and, even more, its acronym want to be, in the words of Emmanuel Macron, ” a wink ” highly symbolic and assumed at the National Council of Resistance. The latter, who coordinated the various movements of the French interior Resistance during the Second World War, holds an essential place in the history of the country.
“We are living in a similar time. We are in a historic era which requires a profound change of model, and then the war is here”, claimed the head of state in his interview with the regional press, referring to the war waged by Moscow in Ukraine. A perilous comparison and a “risk of loss of meaning”, warns Loïc Blondiaux, political scientist and professor of political science at Paris-Sorbonne University. This is not the first time that Emmanuel Macron has invoked historical references: after months of demonstrations by “yellow vests”, he had launched the great national debate and opened “books of grievances”.
What is the stated objective?
This new space for discussions is an attempt by the Head of State to introduce more “horizontality” into decision-making for this second term, the first having been widely criticized for its “verticality” and its lack of dialogue. . French people are “tired of the reforms that come from above”, thus estimated the President of the Republic in June, selling a “cultural revolution [qui] starts from the field and associates all the actors”.
Olivier Véran had meanwhile explained in July that the instance would allow “to share diagnoses and to pose a certain number of problems or objectives” in the territories and at the national level and to consider “the local and territorial aspect of the implementation of the reforms”he developed at the microphone of France Inter.
Who will participate in the National Refoundation Council?
The presidential party and the MoDem, partner of La République en Marche (LRM) since its inception, will participate in the meeting on Thursday. The centrist leader, François Bayrou, has even been appointed secretary general of the CNR and will probably chair the debates.
About fifty other guests have agreed to participate but sometimes have reservations. Edouard Philippe’s party, Horizons, will be represented on Thursday, but not by the former prime minister. Officially on the move in Quebec, “Edouard Philippe absolutely does not believe in the CNR”confessed a relative at Franceinfo.
The trade union confederations CFDT and CFTC, as well as the employers’ organizations Medef and CPME said they participate in the CNR, without however being totally convinced of its usefulness. The president of the CESE, Thierry Beaudet, announced that he would go there so that the authority takes “its part in a refoundation that [le CESE] has been calling for a long time,” mays “without posture, but without naivety”, he said to Figaro.
The main associations of local elected officials, the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), the Assembly of French Departments (ADF) and Regions of France had initially decided not to take part. Received by Emmanuel Macron on Monday evening, they finally changed their minds, believing that ” President [avait] pledged for a regular and direct dialogue”.
But perhaps even more than the participants, it was all those who decided not to attend the CNR meeting who made themselves heard. The opposition parties, from the National Rally (RN) to LFI via the socialists and the ecologists, have all declined the invitation of the head of state. Gérard Larcher, President LR of the Senate and third character of the State, according to the protocol of the Ve Republicalso refused to go to Marcoussis. “I think that this body cannot achieve the renovation of the democracy to which you aspire”says Mr. Larcher in a letter to the Head of State.
Why is the initiative being debated?
In the opposition, in public opinion and even in the presidential majority, the National Council for Refoundation is struggling to convince. First, points out the political scientist Loïc Blondiaux, because the idea appeared as a “political stunt” of the president in the middle of the electoral campaign to respond to those who criticize “a form of power that is too vertical and not very transparent”.
A political ulterior motive “extremely clear” which is, moreover, very badly served by the Head of State’s previous attempts at participatory democracy. After the great national debate which “has had no real impact” and the citizens’ convention for the climate which saw its conclusions reproduced only partiallythis new attempt “appears like a wet squib”analyzes the political scientist, specialist in participatory democracy: “This promise of consultation and consideration of society is no longer credible. »
Moreover, this initiative comes in a new institutional context, after the legislative elections caused LRM to lose its absolute majority in the National Assembly. Since then, Parliament “has regained a form of centrality in the political debate and can appear as a place where the expression of opposition and counter-proposals becomes possible again”according to Loïc Blondiaux. “The institutional rebalancing diminishes the interest and the apparent usefulness” of the CNR, which then appears, continues the political scientist, as a desire to bypass Parliament.
This is a fear shared by several elected opposition members, as well as by the President of the Senate, for whom “the mechanisms of participatory democracy can contribute to enlightening national representation, but they can in no way replace it”. Especially since the raison d’être of the EESC, just reformed and Third Assembly of the Republic, is precisely to involve associations, unions and economic forces in political decisions.
Whether “this vagueness around the mode of operation, the precise composition and the agenda of the CNR is maintained, the power will do what it has done until now, ‘cherry picking’, that is to say say to select what interests him and what is already in line with his strategic orientations”, continues Loïc Blondiaux. The government defends a place of discussion above all. Reacting to the refusal of Gérard LarcherOlivier Véran reiterated that it was “to come and share with the French a diagnosis of the situation in our country”.
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