Despite the boycott of the opposition, the president launches the National Refoundation Council, a more plural instance to seek consensus
French President Emmanuel Macron launched this Thursday the so-called National Refoundation Council (CNR), a new instance of dialogue that aims to bring together the country’s political, economic, social and associative forces to “achieve a consensus on the situation in France and its future’ and carry out future reforms.
“I want to place our compatriots at the heart of the great decisions of the nation,” said the president, often criticized in France for his vertical exercise of power.
The creation of the CNR was one of his campaign promises for the presidential elections last April. Macron promised the French “a new method” of government if he were re-elected.
The president announced in June the creation of this National Refoundation Council, which held its first meeting this Thursday. Full employment, industrialization, school, health, aging well and the ecological transition will be the major issues that the CNR will address, according to the Elysée Palace.
“We do not need more laws or more decrees, but rather action on the ground,” Macron said. “We must create consensus. We must try to bring the positions closer together and say what we agree with and what we don’t and say what we need », he explained.
Macron has announced the launch next week of a “very broad” national consultation online and on the ground to generate debate on the country’s great challenges. He does not rule out that this new exercise in dialogue translates into referendums.
a nod to the past
The CNR is a nod to the National Council of the Resistance (CNR) of 1943, which united the resistance and created a list of reforms to apply after World War II. The place of the launch of the National Refoundation Council has not been chosen at random. It has been done from the National Rugby Center, another CNR, where the French rugby team trains.
The National Refoundation Council has started its mission on the wrong foot. The opposition parties and most of the unions have boycotted the act, considering that Macron only intends to bypass Parliament.
Among those absent is the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher. «I share the diagnosis on the crisis of democracy. But the National Refoundation Council is not the solution. We must avoid confusion between participatory democracy and representative democracy, ”Larcher, a member of the Republican party, the moderate right, wrote on Twitter.
The President of the Senate recalled that “representative democracy” is Parliament and that there is already “a civil society forum” in France, which is the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE, for its acronym in French).
Jordan Bardella, internal president of National Regroupment (former National Front) has described the CNR as “another communication device that will not improve the situation of our compatriots, which worsens day by day under his presidency.” “The future of France is decided and debated in the National Assembly,” added this far-right politician.
«52 representatives of political forces, unions and public officials were invited, 40 are here. The 12 absentees are wrong” and “they will not be able to later explain that they have not been consulted, that (decision-making) is too vertical,” added Macron, who has promised that “the door will always be open” for those who want to participate in future appointments of the National Refoundation Council.
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