Despite the opposition boycott, the president launches the National Refoundation Council, a more pluralistic body to seek consensus
The president, Emmanuel Macron, launched this Thursday the so-called National Refoundation Council (CNR), a new dialogue that aims to bring together the political, economic, social and associative forces of the country to “achieve a consensus on the situation in France and its future” and implement future reforms. “I want to put our compatriots at the center of the nation’s big decisions,” said the Elysee’s head, often criticized for his vertical exercise of power.
The creation of the CNR was one of his pledges in his campaign for the presidential election last April. Macron assured the French that he would launch “a new method” of government if reelected. Therefore, in June, he announced the creation of this National Restoration Council, which met for the first time this Thursday. Full employment, industrialization, school, health, healthy aging and the ecological transition will be the main themes it will tackle, according to the Elysee.
“We don’t need more laws or more decrees, but action on the ground,” Macron said. “We have to create consensus. We should 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. The president also announced the launch of a “very broad” next week. national consultation online and on the ground to spark a debate on the country’s major challenges, he does not rule out the possibility that this new exercise in dialogue may translate into referendums.
The CNR is a nod to the National Council of the Resistance (CNR) of 1943, which united the resistance and drew up a list of reforms to be implemented after World War II. The National Refoundation Council launch site was not chosen at random. It was done from the National Rugby Center, another CNR, where the French team trains.
However, the National Refoundation Council started its mission on the wrong foot. Opposition parties and most trade unions are boycotting the law, as Macron only plans to bypass parliament. Among the absentees, the Senate President, Gérard Larcher, stood out. «I share the diagnosis about the crisis of democracy. But the CNR is not the solution. Confusion between participatory democracy and representative democracy should be avoided,” Larcher, a member of the Republican party, moderate right, wrote on Twitter.
The Senate President recalled that “representative democracy” is Parliament and that in France “a civil society forum” already exists, namely the Economic, Social and Environmental Council. Jordan Bardella, internal president of National Regroupment (former National Front), for his part, described the CNR as “another means of communication that will not improve the situation of our compatriots at all, which is worsening day by day under Macron’s presidency”. “The future of France is decided and discussed in the National Assembly,” the far-right politician added.
“52 representatives of political forces, trade unions and officials were invited, 40 are here. The 12 absentees are wrong” and “they will not be able to explain later that they have not been consulted, that (decision-making) is too vertical,” Macron added, promising that “the door will always be open” to those who want to participate. to future National Refoundation Council appointments.
Source: La Verdad
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