LPromises only bind those who listen to them, even if millions of them have heard them. In 2019, during the launch of the “Great Debates”, in the midst of the yellow vest crisis, Emmanuel Macron promised to publish books of grievances open to citizens, via a digital platform. Five years later, these 19,000 books filled out by more than 200,000 people have still not been made public.
France 3 is broadcasting this Monday, September 16, “Les Doléances” (1), a documentary by Hélène Desplanques, whose first broadcast, scheduled for June 17, was cancelled at the last minute, the channel considering that the political context was not favorable, a few days before the legislative elections.
“I feel betrayed”
Why is the Élysée blocking these notebooks? This is the question asked by Fabrice Dalongeville, mayor of Auger-Saint-Vincent, a small town in Oise, who has decided to break the presidential lock. “Where are these grievances, in fact? And those who wrote them, where are they, five years later?” he wonders at the wheel of his car, as he crisscrosses France in search of contributors to the notebooks. The elected official is the common thread of the documentary, we follow him in his region, in the east of France, in Creuse, but also in Gironde, one of the 20 departments that have decided to make public access to the notebooks of grievances kept by the departmental archives.
Emmanuel Macron with local elected officials in Bordeaux, during one of his “great debates” in March 2019.
Fabien Cottereau / SO Archives
“As mayor, I am also a representative of the State, I made a commitment, I encouraged people to participate. I feel betrayed, I had promised things…” Since last spring, the elected official and the director have been traveling the “territories” to show the documentary, organize debates. In Gironde, the PS president of the Departmental Council, Jean-Luc Gleyze, is joining the movement. In January 2024, he had broadcast the documentary in preview. This Sunday, September 15, he was in Nexon, in Haute-Vienne, as part of the Raisons festival, which aims to “give citizens a voice again”.
“It’s still relevant”
The documentary delivers some of these messages. They exude social pain and the expectation of respect. “Mr. President, I would like you to explain to my 5-year-old daughter why Mom doesn’t turn on the heating everywhere in the house, why Mom doesn’t buy bread every day, why she often makes noodles after the 15th of the month, why she says, when she cries, that she hit her foot while she checks her bank account,” writes a woman from Libourne who tells the President of the Republic the difficulties she hides from her daughter.
“It’s still relevant, people want to live with dignity”
In the north of Gironde, another recounts her participation in the Yellow Vests adventure: “It’s the first time in my life that I felt like I was part of society, it was an emotional shock, the feeling of having waited for this my whole life. We come out of it damaged and grown at the same time. It’s still relevant, people want to live with dignity.”
Electoral program
The departmental archives hold 364 notebooks of grievances. They occupy several rows and are five meters long. The young researcher Samuel Noguerra made them the subject of a thesis (funded by the Department). At the national level, 16,000 notebooks out of 19,000 have reportedly been digitized to date, but access remains reserved for researchers. In 2019, the analysis of the notebooks was entrusted by the Élysée to a consortium of specialized firms. According to Gilles Proriol, a member of one of them, 700 concrete proposals emerge from them, including 100 likely to feed into a cross-party electoral program. This “at the same time” is sleeping in the cupboards.
“There are a multitude of proposals, what comes up very often is the reestablishment of the ISF, the reduction of the CSG, the citizens’ initiative referendum. Immigration or security issues appear very little. This is not a survey, it is the direct expression of thousands of people,” explains Fabrice Dalongeville, who admits to having drawn on his commune’s notebooks to build his electoral program in 2020.
“These notebooks are gathering dust, I wanted to bring them to light,” explains the director, Hélène Desplanques. “It’s a people who speak, the emanation of the French people, it’s quite rare.”
AFP
“A people who speak”
“It’s a bright film, it says that we all have the capacity to do something, I want people to leave saying ‘I’m going to do something’. These notebooks are gathering dust, I wanted to bring them to light. It’s a people who speak, the emanation of the French people, it’s quite rare”, believes the director Hélène Desplanques.
(1) “The grievances”, this Monday, September 16 on France 3 national at 11 p.m.
