Eleven months ago almost to the day, on Saturday May 14, 2022, Catherine Vautrin spoke discreetly with Jean Castex to study the conditions for the transfer of power to Matignon. Thus had wanted Emmanuel Macron. Before the president, all in his procrastination, gets his arm twisted and appoints Elisabeth Borne Prime Minister.
Since this episode, the president of the urban community of Greater Reims (who is also at the head of the National Agency for Urban Renewal, Anru) has remained discreet. The crisis that the country is going through encourages the former minister of Jacques Chirac to react. To make its voice heard at a time when Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne are struggling to find a way out of the crisis.
L’Express: The debate has been focusing for several days on our democratic framework. Is there danger in the house?
Catherine Vautrin: Yes, our democracy is in danger. To be a nation is to have a consensus on the functioning of the country and on the institutions. There is a doubt about these elements, therefore a doubt about what makes it possible to form a nation, therefore a danger to democracy. It is time to mobilize, by defining a project that allows us to move forward. The 2022 electoral sequence did not produce any legitimacy recognized by all when it should have caused a new breath. After the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, the citizens wanted during the legislative elections to install a safeguard, which has become an obstacle.
What can be done to ensure that this quinquennium continues to move forward once the Constitutional Council has ruled on pensions ?
Building a new contract during the mandate is obviously very complicated, but to close this sequence of retreats, you have to work for one or two months on a project and build a coalition. Let’s define a general project, but without concealing the subjects: we obviously could not continue with a text on immigration in this climate, let us however be careful not to forget these subjects which in one way or another touch on the public order.
The priority is to put two Frances side by side now face to face. Some topics can unite. Let me take an example: the carbon footprint and resilience. We are witnessing a worrying phenomenon of disconnection of young people incidentally with the political world, mainly with our generation and even fundamentally with a model of society. And you have a part of the population that is distraught and wondering how they can get out of this. In short, there are those who are afraid for their future, to the point of not wanting to have any more children, and those who worry about having to change their habits. Both are equal before the consequences, they must reflect together on the causes and the remedies. Faced with this immense challenge, we need the insight of science, as the Covid has made everyone aware that science sometimes does not know.
What lessons do you draw from the sequence we have just gone through?
I will be careful not to give lessons. We were unable to agree on the finding. Then we missed the debate on the place of work. I’m not talking about work value, I’m talking about a reflection that should not be approached with 20th century software. Today, it is the candidate who chooses the company. We must therefore integrate a generational phenomenon: earning a living without losing it is a new logic. It’s not people who don’t want to work, it’s a radically different approach. The issue of pensions can only be viewed through the financial prism. You have to have a vision and then draw the consequences.
You were vice-president of the National Assembly for nine years. What does the Assembly elected in 2022 inspire in you?
The Assembly has become a forum for publicity. Admittedly, representative democracy is under threat. The attacks on the joint joint commissions – tomorrow, I fear, on the Constitutional Council – are odious. Look at the number of deputies who leave after a mandate. The deputy has long been a local elected official with real experience, he is now in a somewhat virtual world: the end of the cumulation has done a lot of harm. But if we want to save our democracy, we must respect the choice of voters. The deputies who are there were elected, it is up to the citizens to draw the consequences of their behavior. What is true is that the country is changing in its view of the institutions, we saw it with the way the 49-3 was perceived. At the same time, he’s never been so right and doesn’t want a mess. Silent France wants to regain order and respect for institutions.
You criss-cross France as president of Anru. France from above against France from below, a break between the elites and the territories: these oppositions are not new, but is the gap greater than ever?
It widens and multiplies: between rural people and urban people, between young people and the rest of the population, between those who feel downgraded and the others. The rates of segregation in cities are high, people who are neighbors no longer see each other. Jacques Chirac had spoken in 1995 of social fracture, it is clear that it is still there.
Has France become ungovernable?
It is no longer possible for the top to decide for the bottom, there must be a permanent debate, where dialogue and exchange make it possible to avoid immobility. We had the Glorious Thirties, then the Anxious Thirties, you have to do the Virtuous Thirties. This requires a program designed with those who make the country day to day, the elected representatives of the territories. The mayor remains essential, because the town hall is an open door and a light. The living area is a major concept, it is the people who live there who define it and not the geographers. This is why intercommunality is the ideal size to carry out major projects. Within the urban community that I chair, there is a municipality of 53 inhabitants and Reims, with its 185,000 inhabitants. There are veto rights in terms of governance, everyone is permanently involved in the decision.
It is on the territories that everything is played. I unanimously adopted a territorial project on carbon neutrality, a base that allows us to open the construction sites of transport, housing, the attractiveness of the territory, tourism. This responds to a political logic: we start from what we want to do together and we move forward. Territories are full of solutions. The France of the prefectures is more efficient than that of the metropolises!
A more personal question… Emmanuel Macron named you then de-named you at Matignon. It was a year ago. Looking back, what do you think of this episode?
It’s the past. It was a series of fascinating exchanges. Political life is a great surprise and a great brutality, but it is also what makes its richness.