On the eve of the launch of the National Council for Refoundation, the initiative is largely united against it… even in the ranks of the presidential majority.
“We are launching something that angers even the biggest fans of the Elysée”, releases a former macronista parliamentarian. “I’ve never seen that.”
Announced at the beginning of June by Emmanuel Macron during an interview with the regional daily press, this “new method of governance” aims to bring down the representatives of “the living forces of the Nation”, including the social partners, associations or even the political parties. , on five major themes: “Full employment, school, health, good aging and ecological transition”.
The empty seat policy
But the political context has changed since then. The president failed to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly and the opposition regained strength. Enough to give them the political clout to unanimously boycott the meeting, from Nupes to RN to LR.
Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate, and several unions such as the CGT and the FO also refused to participate, as did the associations of elected officials at first, only to change their minds.
Renaissance members are also not rushing to participate.
“If it is to make decisions without even thinking about getting the parliamentarians to vote, it will be without me,” advances, reassembled, a majority deputy.
“We can’t work like this”
The hostility escalated after the mention, in the Sunday newspaper, the possible transformation of the CNR’s ideas into decrees or laws, without necessarily going through the parliamentary box. “The president believes so much in this new method that he is willing to submit the proposals that arise to a referendum,” explains the entourage of the head of state quoted by the JDD.
“We had the impression of starting again in a kind of Citizen Convention for the climate with a president who says at the beginning that he will agree with all the ideas. We cannot work like this”, judges a member of d’Horizons, the party by Edouard Philippe.
Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly, has also drawn the red lines. Calling herself “extremely vigilant” about “the role of Parliament”, the president of the National Assembly recalled this Monday before the microphone of France Inter that it is the “place of democratic debate where all those who debate have been elected”.
A method that questions
“I don’t know if the CNR is the right place to resume dialogue with the French, far enough from Parliament, but I don’t know where it exists,” qualifies the Renaissance deputy Robin Reda, who judges that the initiative has “the merit of existing and to try”.
The chosen method was also unconvincing. In the ranks of the majority, few have savored the surprise appointment of François Bayrou as the general secretary of the CNR. Neither Élisabeth Borne, who officially pilots the system, nor Olivier Véran, government spokesman and minister responsible for Democratic Renewal, have been informed.
“It is symbolic but it shows that in a certain way Emmanuel Macron did not understand that he could no longer do politics as before,” remarks a senator from the presidential party, who nevertheless supports the device.
The executive wants to believe it
Aware of the need not to get angry with its majority, the Executive tried to smooth things over at the end of August, Alexis Kohler, the secretary general of the Elysee, wanted to reassure. “The CNR will not be a substitute tool for Parliament,” promised Emmanuel Macron’s closest collaborator to the majority executives, according to information from the Parisian.
The same story of François Bayrou. “Nobody ever said that the CNR was going to dictate the law,” assured the head of the Modem this Wednesday in ICL.
What to convince? In the ministries we try in any case to believe it, remembering that the record abstentionism of the last legislative elections with 54% in the second round and the increase in violence against elected officials push us to try new debate formats.
“No one was betting on the great debate and allowed the country to get out of the crisis of the yellow vests. We cannot say that we failed even before trying,” analyzes an adviser to the Executive.
Don’t add “clutter”
The CNR’s first steps should also reassure the presidential coalition by rolling out a fairly classic program. “The information we have is that Emmanuel Macron will explain the spirit that he wants to stimulate, the method and an agenda,” explains a party executive.
“We hope that he does not throw bombs during the informal lunch that he wants and mess up a very complicated political situation,” sighs, however, a deputy who notices a change in climate.
“We always agreed with him during the previous mandate. We all owed him our choice. There we fought like the devil to return to the Assembly and we no longer want to accept everything or anything, ”he remarks.
Some predict a destination for the device close to that of the National Conference of Territories. Launched with great fanfare in 2017 to renew the link between the communities and the president, the dialogue table was to meet every six months to build a “new method.” Boycotted by associations of elected officials, it only met three times.
Source: BFM TV
