It was to be the alpha and the omega of democratic renewal. Anne Hidalgo’s secret boot to show the example to follow. “Giving your opinion, reacting, proposing are part of Parisian culture. City-world, Paris is a city where citizen debate and participation are omnipresent,” we can read in the Bible written by the evangelists of the Town Hall.
Patatras, participatory democracy, since it is it that it is about, forgot the citizens by the side of the road. This is the only conclusion to be drawn from the famecal participation rate (4.06 %) of the last “vote” proposed on March 23 to the inhabitants of the capital, which was asked to decide on the vegetation and pedestrianization of 500 streets of the City of Light. Its officials prefer to dwell on the beautiful result obtained during this ballot, with 66 % of bulletins favorable to the project.
The failure of this participatory strategy
But with a record abstention of 96 %, they should especially question the failure of this participatory strategy … The two previous consultations of 2023 and 2024 (relating to the self-service scooters and on the specific pricing for the parking of SUVs) had hardly done better, attracting less than 10 % of voters, which, undoubtedly scalded by the lack of efficiency of their voting, to sulk the city’s initiative. A reaction which hardly surprises Paul Cébille, political analyst and specialist in the referendum: according to him, this ballot “has more communication than decision -making”. Especially, he adds that these garden streets already exist and are part of the local bioclimatic urban plan voted last November.
Perhaps it would be urgent to put an end to an expensive and unnecessary system democratically? Should we bury any local consultation initiative, on the pretext that the capital does not know how to organize them? “It would be a mistake, Paris is in the matter a counterexample”, tempers Paul Cébille, who recalls that last year, around thirty local referendums were held in France, with, most of the time, real questions and a real interest of citizens. The inhabitants of Seyne (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) were, for example, consulted on the future of the Grand-Puy station: 756 voters moved (58 % participation rate) to say mainly yes to the closure of the ski lifts. “The local referendum has two virtues,” continues the political scientist. It can help solve a problem by making voters decide and it contributes, via the debate it arouses, to help voters better understand the issues around a subject. “
Notice to the mayor of Paris: perhaps it would be necessary to put an end to the COM disguised as a participative gibberish and ask the real questions that affect the Parisians. For example: do you agree to continue to go into debt (the debt of the capital increased from 4.1 to 9.3 billion euros between 2014 and 2025) to finance city projects? This question could be resolved by the 2026 municipal election…