Maxence de Rugy is president of the National Association for the Passport of Citizenship and mayor of Talmont Saint Hilaire (Vendée).
FIGAROVOX. - After Charlie Hebdo, you created a “citizenship passport”. What does it consist on ?
Maxence DE RUGY. -
In 2015, I created the Passport du civisme in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
The objective was to move from the stage of palpable emotion, to go beyond the stage of “Je suis Charlie”, to create a real mobilization of our youth in favor of civic-mindedness.
Designed as a fun and educational guide, this "Passport" offers CM2 students the opportunity to take a civic course on themes such as the duty to remember, the protection of our natural and cultural heritage, the intergenerational link, solidarity, protection of citizens, adherence to the values of the Republic ...
Throughout the course, young people are accompanied by ambassadors, local figures of good citizenship who validate each action.
Teachers, parents and local elected officials are also stakeholders and it is ultimately the entire municipality, an entire territory, which is mobilized in this civic learning.
This course, punctuated by individual actions at the family level, or collective at the school level, allows teachers and families to be involved throughout the year.
The objective is clear: to build a society of commitment based on the right balance between rights and duties, and to promote local roots, the basis of national cohesion.
The 50,000 children who have validated their Passport of Citizenship took part in the commemorations of November 11, took care of their elders by sending a greeting card, appropriated their local heritage, "took the uniform" of firefighters or gendarmes, mobilized for the most fragile by a collection of toys ...
Maxence de Rugy
The main objective is therefore to build links between populations?
“Living together”, “living better together,“ building society ”… These injunctions have proliferated as our society crumbles.
If they make us smile, it is because they have shown all their inoperability.
Because how to decree national cohesion?
If the prêchi-preaches are in vain, it is good that we must change our approach and stop pretending to change things from above, in a global and holistic way. We must admit, painfully, that territories or sections of society are lost.
Yet there are thousands of examples of a living Republic in each of our municipalities. They constitute these “small carnal homelands”, within institutions such as the army, firefighters, the police, among caregivers, with social, heritage, or environmental associations, and so on. It is this tangible reality that lives the 50,000 children who have validated their Passport of Citizenship, by participating in the commemorations of November 11, by taking care of their elders by sending a greeting card, by appropriating their heritage. local, by "taking the uniform" of firefighters or gendarmes, by mobilizing for the most vulnerable by collecting toys, the children will live their first civic experiences within their municipality.
Our mission as an entrenched elected official is to go and consolidate these “plots” of the Republic and pass them on to the younger generations.
The Passport to Citizenship is a real source of hope to see how generous and devoted our youth can be.
Maxence de Rugy
Do you see the fruits of this journey?
The Passport responds to a thirst for commitment.
We no longer offer anything to our young people.
This cultural void today leaves room for all ideologies and dogmatisms;
and leads to totalitarianism of the “I”.
However, wherever it is deployed, there is a real enthusiasm among young people.
It is a real source of hope to see how generous and devoted our youth can be.
"Youth is the smile of the future", said Victor Hugo.
Sowing citizenship in our youth is the assurance of harvesting citizens committed to their country tomorrow.
We are grouped together within the Passport du Civisme association which unites more than 300 municipalities in France, including the most symbolic of them: the city of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in which the history and geography teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded.
After this trauma, the city wanted to join the system to reaffirm our common values.
Maxence de Rugy
Is this passport intended to extend to the national level?
Today, the Passport to Citizenship is acclaimed by all communities who wish to place citizenship at the heart of their municipal project.
We are grouped together within the Passport du Civisme association which unites more than 300 municipalities in France, including the most symbolic of them: the city of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in which the history and geography teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded.
After this trauma, the city wanted to join the system to reaffirm our common values.
Within schools, "
this inviolable asylum where the quarrels of men do not penetrate
" according to Jean Zay, there is an urgent need to re-mobilize our youth to make them discover the richness of everything that keeps our society together.
In collaboration with the Ministry of National Education, which certified our system and the Association of Mayors of France, the objective is to offer this tool to all young people in France.
Our country cultivates a will to live a common destiny.
A destiny that is based on values and a common history.
This is what our association seeks to promote.
It is from this locally embodied Republic that we can envision a new collective hope.
By mobilizing our youth, we challenge our country by calling on it to come together under the tricolor banner.
