On the occasion of this second edition of the Saint-Denis meetings organized by Emmanuel Macron this Friday, November 17, certain political parties are conspicuous by their absence.
Emmanuel Macron made an appointment with all the leaders of the political parties for the second edition of the Saint-Denis meetings. As during the last meeting on August 30, the objective of such a gathering is to recreate a form of collaboration between political parties on urgent subjects imposed by the national and international context. The party leaders who responded have been received by the Head of State since 9:15 a.m., this Friday, November 17, at the House of Education of the Legion of Honor.
On the agenda: the situation in Gaza and the war in Ukraine on an international level, the extension of the use of the referendum to social issues, decentralization and finally possible constitutional reforms regarding the status of Corsica and the New Caledonia for national issues.
Unlike the previous meeting on August 30 where all the parties were present, this time, three of them declined the invitation of the Head of State. The notable absentees are Éric Ciotti from the Republicans, Manuel Bompard from La France Insoumise and Olivier Faure from the Socialist Party. They all explained the reason for their refusal. For rebellious France, Mr Bompard expressed himself in a press release published on November 7 where he condemned these “monarchical exercises aimed at circumventing the debate organized in its constitutional forms”. Among the socialists, Olivier Faure denounces a “staged” in a press release published this Thursday, November 16.
The second and last meetings of Saint-Denis?
This edition will therefore take place between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Tondelier of Europe Ecologie Les Verts (EELV), Fabien Roussel of the Communist Party, Jordan Bardella of the National Rally, Hervé Marseille of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) and Guillaume Lacroix of Radical Left Party (PRG). Also present will be Stéphane Séjourné from Renaissance, Edouard Philippe from Horizons, François Bayrou from MoDem and Laurent Hénart from the Radical Party. Everyone agreed that this was an important appointment to honor. The Head of State, for his part, denounced the withdrawals as “a major political mistake” this Wednesday, November 15 from Switzerland where he was traveling.
While the president intends to submit his proposal to facilitate the organization of the shared initiative referendum (RIP) as long as it does not relate to a text debated in Parliament, the absence of certain weakens the approach of the head of the State of establishing cohesion between political parties and the idea of achieving common results seems to be moving away.
Already during the previous edition, the results obtained were considered very unsatisfactory: no measure had seen the light of day, apart from a social conference on low wages, which had little to convince politicians. Elements which call into question the usefulness of such a meeting while part of the political class is missing for this second meeting.