Macron Aims for a National Dialogue at a Meeting, but Faces No-Shows
|
Version 0 of 1. PARIS — Seemingly humbled by the fractures in French society exposed during the election that ultimately led to his second term as France’s president, Emmanuel Macron promised to rule in a new way — fewer dictates from above and more collaborating. So he announced the creation of a council with members from all parts of French political and civil society, holding regular meetings all across the country, to find answers to some of the country’s most pressing problems and restitch the broken connections of democracy. To underline its importance, he called it the National Council for Reconstruction — an obvious echo of the country’s venerated multiparty resistance committee that fought against France’s occupiers during World War II and re-envisioned the country literally from rubble. Except that on Thursday, there were many notable no-shows for the council’s inaugural meeting, set in the national rugby team’s training center just south of Paris. All opposition political parties boycotted the meeting, as did many of the country’s powerful unions and the head of the country’s Senate. They denounced the council as a publicity stunt at best and a hastily constructed ramp to bypass democracy at worst. The scene offered a foreshadowing of the headwinds that Mr. Macron, who no longer controls Parliament, will face during his second term governing a country facing a looming energy crisis, growing inflation, the daunting effects of climate change and clear democratic disillusionment. “We don’t wish to participate” in a “substitute Parliament or a fake consultation,” the leaders of the Socialist Party said in a public letter to the president. Mr. Macron won his second term in April, in a runoff against the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. But in the legislative elections that followed shortly afterward, his centrist coalition lost an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the lower and more powerful house of Parliament, and Ms. Le Pen’s anti-immigrant National Rally party won a record 89 seats. Voter turnout in the first round of voting was the lowest on record, reflecting a widespread disillusionment with politics. Known during his first term as “Jupiter,” for governing like a god hurling down thunderbolt orders from above while sidelining even the parliamentarians from his own party, the president realized he needed to change his style of governing for practical reasons — to push his agenda through Parliament — as well as philosophical ones. On the night of his re-election, he delivered a sober acceptance speech, promising a “new era” that “will not be the continuation of the five years now ending but the collective invention of a new method for five better years.” Soon after, Mr. Macron announced the reconstruction commission. “He is craving political legitimacy,” explained Vincent Martigny, a professor of political science at the University of Nice. He added, “The real question that everyone is asking themselves is, will he be able to change after five years?” Since the announcement, the council’s mission, structure and mandate have remained vague. Last week, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne clarified that the group would dig into five voluminous issues, including the country’s strained public health and education systems, a planned green transition of the economy and Mr. Macron’s campaign promise to reduce the country’s unemployment rate to zero. Opposition politicians took to simply calling it the “thingy.” “It seems a complete improvisation,” said Yves Sintomer, a professor of political science at the Paris University of Vincennes Saint-Denis. “The rules of the game are unclear. It’s very probable that it won’t be a success — which is a pity.” Mr. Macron waxed poetic from the rugby field where Thursday’s meeting took place, saying the new committee would help “rebuild consensus” and change France in a profound way. “I want to put our compatriots back at the heart of the nation’s major choices,” he said. To those boycotting, he responded defiantly: “There is a common sense saying, ‘Those who are absent are always wrong.’” But, he added, the door would remain open should they change their minds. The skepticism is well earned. This isn’t Mr. Macron’s first attempt to reinvigorate democracy. After the Yellow Vest protests — a series of violent demonstrations by working-class people in 2018 and 2019 over the rise in gasoline and diesel taxes — Mr. Macron attempted to defuse the anger by setting up the “Great National Debate.” The two-month national consultation in which 1.5 million citizens weighed in on what they wanted and filled out “grievance notebooks” didn’t lead to any major reforms, and Mr. Macron often did most of the talking. Later, he set up the Citizen’s Climate Convention, a panel of randomly selected people from across France who formulated more than 100 ambitious proposals to tackle climate change, which Mr. Macron vowed to submit “unfiltered” to a parliamentary vote. But when the legislation largely inspired by the convention was finally passed, critics said many of the measures were watered down to the point of absurdity, and protesting activists pointed out that France would be unable to meet its commitments to the Paris climate agreement. “It’s a bit harmful for democracy,” said Cyril Dion, an environmental activist who oversaw the work of the convention, adding that “launching ambitious projects, creating expectations but then failing to keep promises fuels distrust.” To the French, Mr. Macron’s new venture is an obvious allusion to the cherished National Resistance Council — an underground group formed during World War II. That council brought together disparate factions under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle to coordinate tactics against the occupying Nazis and, later, to prepare for the country’s hopeful reconstruction. Much of France’s generous social safety net is its legacy. Though many French mocked and contested the comparison, few would dismiss the great challenges the country faces. There is the threat of blackouts this winter, rising living costs, an insecure climate — which caused vast wildfires and a damaging drought this summer — and Russia’s enduring invasion of Ukraine. The country, Mr. Macron said in a speech last month, has entered “the end of abundance.” Facing these problems is a population increasingly distrustful of politics and greatly divided along ideological lines, noted Jean Garrigues, a leading historian on France’s political culture. Different communities “talk to one another less and less,” Mr. Garrigues said. “The interests of Bourgeois-Bohemian Parisiens aren’t those of farmers from Lozère, and the interests of the farmers from Lozère aren’t those of the youth from the suburbs. France is fractured and needs more than ever to recreate a form of dialogue.” Already, some of the country’s opposition parties have vowed to block the government’s budget in the National Assembly next month, even before debating it. In part, that reflects the uncompromising nature of French politics, said Chloé Morin, a political scientist at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. But it also underlined the need for Mr. Macron’s new democracy re-engagement project to succeed and prevent another potential social uprising in the country. “The government is aware of the fragility of social harmony,” she said. “There is, in the background, the threat of a new kind of Yellow Vest protest hanging in the air.” |