Michel Barnier wants a national day of citizen consultation, this is what it could look like

POLITICS – The return of participatory democracy? On the occasion of his general policy declaration before the National Assembly, Prime Minister Michel Barnier affirmed this Tuesday, October 1, his desire to organize ” regularly “ (“once a year or every two years”) a “national day of citizen consultation”.

“On that day, town halls would be open and each level of community – the municipality, the intercommunality, the department, the region and the State – would have the opportunity to ask citizens a question and open a debate to enlighten this question »specified the Prime Minister, who affirmed that the French had “things to say and often good solutions to propose”.

This initiative was defended by the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet as part of a reflection on institutional reform. She then mentioned an annual meeting, with “referenda at all levels” et “mayors, citizens of a city, a department, a region (who) could take up issues of local interest”. “We lack a culture of citizen consultation. We need a new democratic breath”she pleaded in June 2024 in an interview with Parisian.

“Books of grievances”, new version?

In front of the deputies, Michel Barnier promised “listening, respect and accountability to French people”. But he did not detail the framework of this day of consultation which promises to be optional, left to the discretion of local elected officials.

The initiative is in any case reminiscent of the – not really happy – experience of registers of grievances. Launched by Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the yellow vest crisis, these notebooks were to bring together the demands and ideas of the French on all possible subjects. More than 200,000 contributions were recorded in town halls before being digitized. But then? Then not much else. The planned national restitution never took place and the contents of the notebooks were never used.

The question of citizen participation in political life is recurrent. Another sea serpent still on the fringes of the yellow vest crisis, Emmanuel Macron had proposed lowering the threshold of signatures necessary to call a citizens’ referendum. But nothing has ever materialized, even though it is acclaimed by a large part of the political class.

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