Established nine months ago, at the request of Emmanuel Macron after the Yellow Vests crisis, the Citizen Climate Convention, made up of 150 citizens drawn by lot, will give its work to the executive on Sunday, June 21. Pascal Canfin, MEP, elected under the colors of En Marche !, who chairs the Environment Committee in the European Parliament, wants some of the proposals to lead before the end of the year to a referendum with multiple questions. For the former director general of the NGO WWF and former minister of François Hollande, we must "give the keys to climate ambition to the French".
Sunday, at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, the Convention will make its proposals to the executive. Do you think Emmanuel Macron will travel?
PASCAL CANFIN. I don't know, but what matters is what he does with it. I think that the Head of State will speak on the subject in early July, after the municipal elections and before his more general intervention scheduled around July 14. Given the work provided over the past nine months, the wealth of proposals, the expectation created by this original exercise that is the Citizens' Convention, a specific speech by the president on the conclusions of this convention is of course desirable.
C ette citizen Convention will it lead to a referendum?
In any case, that's what I've been proposing for several months, because you have to give the keys to the French to be able to decide on measures that neither the right nor the left have taken so far. Only a referendum is up to the climate requirement. The best is that it consists of three to five questions in order to remain understandable by all French people and not to become an instrument of political and partisan recovery, that is to say a kind of plebiscite "for or against Macron ".
When could this referendum take place?
I think the best option is before the end of this year, subject, of course, to sanitary conditions.
Do you not fear that such an exercise would be very complicated?
If the Convention adopts this route and the executive then favors this option, several conditions must be fulfilled. The questions must of course be in accordance with the Constitution, because not all subjects can be submitted to a referendum. The questions must be understandable to the French and I think it would be normal for the final drafting to be carried out and validated with the citizens of the Convention.
My Earth Newsletter
Each week, environmental news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
What questions do you think should be retained?
It is not up to me to say it, it is up to the citizens of the Convention to do so this weekend. We already know that major themes deserve a democratic debate, because this refers to strong social choices. For example, the obligation to renovate housing to better insulate it. Today there is only a simple incentive and it does not work. Other possible questions: limit the sprawl of cities to protect agricultural land that has been disappearing for decades or better regulate advertising on the most polluting products. The referendum could also relate to the reform of the Constitution to strengthen the guarantees of environmental protection. It is precisely these choices that the 150 citizens will decide this weekend.
Isn't this possible referendum with multiple questions a risky political weapon for Emmanuel Macron?
No political decision is without risk. The major novelty is to give the keys to climate ambition to the French. I believe that our democracy needs to be renewed and modernized and the Citizens' Convention is a strong symbol of this. As for the ecological transition, it requires sometimes radical changes and it is healthy to know if the majority of French people support them. It will be a moment of truth from which we will all grow up.