“We’re not there”: François Bayrou asks the executive to change method and “govern with the people”

2023-09-30 21:41:49

Message received ? The president of MoDem, François Bayrou, an ally of the macronie, advocated on Saturday to “completely change the method” of government, believing that governing in democracy consisted not of “holding on”, but of “governing with the people”.

“I believe that governing is not only governing in the name of the people for a defined time, but governing with the people,” declared Mr. Bayrou during the MoDem back-to-school university in Guidel (Morbihan), after the interventions of the leaders of the other parties of the majority of Emmanuel Macron, Stéphane Séjourné (Renaissance) and Édouard Philippe (Horizons).

For Mr. Bayrou, “democracy consists of considering citizens as co-responsible. Democracy consists of taking seriously the idea that those who elect you are decision-makers. And not just once every five years.” “This requires us to completely change our method of government. We’re not there. Because the powers in general believe that it is like in the past. The powers in general believe that you just have to hold on,” he explained.

“I believe that democracy will not resist it”

But “in the age of omnipresent screens and social networks, that is inconceivable.” “The weight of public opinion is such that if there is not this mutual understanding, this shared understanding, then you are in confrontation. And if you are in confrontation, you can no longer govern,” continued Mr. Bayrou. “If we do not manage to do this (…) I believe that democracy will not resist it,” said the leader of the MoDem.

“We must therefore make a powerful effort that will challenge our ways of being in order to invent the principle of involving citizens in political decisions of primary importance. It requires respect, it requires collective intelligence, it requires generosity to share information.”

“When we are in power and we have information that makes us make decisions, we do not want to share it. It’s like that, because everyone understands that information is also power,” added Mr. Bayrou, who regularly regretted a lack of education from the government during pension reform.

“This effort is being conducted nowhere in the world. It is up to us, and this is not the first time in history, to be on the front line of this reinvention of democracy,” he concluded.