Upon his arrival at the Palais d'Iéna, Emmanuel Macron began his exchange with the 150 members of the Citizen Climate Convention in these terms: "Thank you for welcoming me for a few hours among you ..." His evening was far from over , to hear Édouard Philippe make known at the same time or almost, that he will meet "as of this evening" the president "to discuss the possible advances" with the unions on the pension reform.
Pensions and ecological transition ... "We have two subjects for the future and it is normal that in both cases it is scary, observes the deputy MoDem, Erwan Balanant. This shows that our society needs a place to find consensus and make informed decisions. "
An "experience of participatory democracy"
While the Prime Minister is struggling with the laborious search for a compromise, the Head of State, defends his record in terms of social policy refusing to "pay for (his) predecessors". And delivers to its guests as a mini-treatise on the difficulty of governing. "To make things change means embarking people on change", he recommends to the assembly, conceived as an "experience of participative democracy" following the Yellow Vests movement. An unprecedented crisis triggered by the rejection, in the form of a spark, of the carbon tax, "an error" admitted by Macron this Friday evening. "They responded to decisions they considered bad because they were unfair," retains the president of this pivotal episode.
So, even if he recalls that "it will always take people to endorse" these decisions, in short the rulers, he gives the pledges of a less vertical exercise of power, of a reformism going less clear cut. "What you put on the table, it will not be done," he promises these citizens drawn for floor on the means to "reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 ”.
"He is in the process of opening up"
Asked repeatedly and insistently on the subject, he goes even further by being more than open to, "on a few measures, calling for a referendum, because this is what will allow us to share with everyone concern about the subject. " This is because there is, notes a relative of the head of state, "this idea that it is the supreme stage of popular expression". This path, Macron insists in turn, is a means of "going further, stronger", because "it puts pressure on the legislator".
What will happen in the end? “He has no bias, nor a priori. He is in the process of opening up, ”deciphers one of his relatives. "The referendum can be an option, especially if there are two or three strong questions that are decided by the citizens", observes the deputy Matthieu Orphelin, co-signer of a forum purposely published this Friday to claim from the government a " climate assessment of laws. "It is now, in the amplification of the ecological action of the country, that he must demonstrate his conversion", insists the ex-LREM. For proposals and arbitrations, we will still have to wait.
While his action in the area of ecological transition raises questions in the room, criticism from associations and NGOs, Emmanuel Macron urges the citizens of the Convention to "take strong options". Before concluding, he asked them to "build consensus at the same time as ambition". He who denounces "the violence in the demonstrations" thus hopes to have found a way to "get anger out of the street".
