Emmanuel Macron announced that a new citizens’ convention would be launched by the end of the year. After those on climate and end of life, the theme of this third edition remains to be defined.
Present at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) to discuss with members of the Citizens’ Convention on the end of life, Emmanuel Macron announced that a third cycle of this assembly will begin before the end of 2024. This convention, formed in 2019, “is intended to be completed by the end of the five-year term”, he declared.
After the climate and the end of life, what will be the next theme on which citizens will work? If the subject still needs to be studied in conjunction with the EESC “in the coming months”, the theme will be suggested “in the coming months”. A method already used during the first two conventions. The first, on the climate, had mixed results. “We learned,” assured Emmanuel Macron. That on the end of life has been the subject of numerous debates since its launch in December 2022. In total, 185 French citizens chosen at random set out a series of recommendations to construct new legislation on the end of life.
But the aim of this new democratic tool remains to fight against “disinterest in public affairs”. “People don’t just want to vote and give a mandate for everything: they want to be involved in the deliberations,” said the Head of State. “I am convinced that participatory and deliberative democracy is a way of putting the pieces back together.”
“Several referendums” to come?
For the Head of State, the support of the Citizens’ Convention demonstrates the benefits of “deliberative and participatory democracy”. “The difficulty is that the world we live in does not organize debates. There is a tyranny of emotion and instantaneousness, with a primacy of social networks. This does not allow us to create a common frame of reference and therefore a possibility of consensus. This is the contribution of the citizens’ convention. Emmanuel Macron has also not ruled out resorting to a referendum in the future. “I am thinking about several referendums in which I could take the initiative,” he said. “I want to do it at the right time.”