After the big debate, the registers of grievances in town halls and the Citizens’ Climate Convention, here is the “Agora” application, a new government initiative to consult the French. The project, presented this Thursday, September 28 by Olivier Véran in his capacity as Minister Delegate responsible for Democratic Renewal, is intended to be an innovative practice to bring citizens closer to politics and fight against abstention.
The principle is as follows: users will be able, anonymously, to make proposals, ask their questions to the government and vote for the best questions. Then, each week, the ministers will respond to the most popular of them. Olivier Véran himself will provide answers during his traditional press conference on Wednesday, after the Council of Ministers. Another great feature, the application will organize consultations on different themes. The ecological and energy transition, while Emmanuel Macron presented his planning project at the start of the week, and the democratic renewal will inaugurate the concept. They will be followed, in the coming months, by employment, health, safety and even school. “The French love politics, they talk about it everywhere and want to be useful,” justified the former Minister of Health this morning on France 2.
“Agora in the morning, 49.3 in the evening”
Agora was developed by Grégoire Cazcarra, advisor to Olivier Véran and already at the origin of the Elyze application, which deciphered the issues of the 2022 presidential election and encouraged people to vote. More than a million French people had downloaded this “political Tinder”, also accused of secretly helping candidate Emmanuel Macron.
Here too, criticism was quick to rain down from the left. Many elected officials have pointed out the government’s inconsistency. “The agora in the morning. 49-3 in the evening. The start-up nation is the AppStore rather than Parliament”, reacted François Ruffin, in reference to the use of article 49.3 by the government to adopt the public finance programming bill. The environmentalist deputy Marie Pochon speaks of a “app to bypass Parliament” and his rebellious colleague Hadrien Clouet spoke directly to Olivier Véran, not without irony. “If you are looking for the address of the Assembly, it is at 126 rue de l’Université (public entrance), Paris. There, you will find 577 people, not to be consulted in a secret dungeon on the Internet, but to vote”, he wrote on X (ex-Twitter). A criticism frequently made of the executive, especially since the adoption of the pension reform without a vote by the National Assembly.
At the National Rally, the application also aroused mockery. “The government’s toll-free numbers are now switching to applications. Otherwise, there is something that worked and was rather well respected before 2005: the referendum!” quipped MP Thomas Ménage. Only a few voices from the majority were raised to defend the idea, the image of the Renaissance deputy Guillaume Gouffier : “Excellent initiative announced by Olivier Véran to involve our fellow citizens in public decision-making and allow this direct participation in the life of our country!” Not sure that this application will meet the expected success, but let’s hope for it a different destiny than the notebooks of grievances, abandoned since 2019 in the boxes of the departmental archives.