2023-11-16 15:52:51
Emmanuel Macron visiting Bern, November 15, 2023. ANTHONY ANEX/REUTERS
Emmanuel Macron waited until he was in Switzerland, neutral territory, to unleash his blows on Wednesday towards the party leaders who decided to boycott the third edition of the Saint-Denis meetings, scheduled for Friday November 17. From Berne, where he is on a state visit, the President of the Republic toughened his tone towards the two party leaders, Olivier Faure (Socialist Party, PS) and Eric Ciotti (Les Républicains, LR), whose the chairs will remain empty in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), just like that of La France insoumise (LFI).
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Tuesday, after discovering the defection of the head of LR, the Elysée nevertheless made it known that the doors of the former royal abbey ” stay[aient] open to all those who have been invited”. “It’s never too late to change your mind”trumpeted, Wednesday, the government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, at the end of the council of ministers. A few hours later, from Switzerland, the head of state described “major political mistake” the decision of the leaders of LR and the PS, these two government parties “who had to govern France for decades”.
“Using the context we are experiencing to justify an absence from a working meeting on constitutional reforms is absolutely unworthy of a political leader”launched the President of the Republic, while Eric Ciotti criticized him for his absence from the march against anti-Semitism, which brought together some 200,000 people in the country on Sunday. “They will go and explain to their voters why they are not there” to discuss, in particular, the broadening of the scope of the referendum, said Emmanuel Macron, who seemed quite annoyed.
Reach out to LR
In fact, the president of the Les Républicains party will not be present on Friday, when a measure he is asking for must be discussed. During the first meeting, on August 30, which brought together in Saint-Denis all the political forces represented in Parliament, Eric Ciotti pleaded, facing the Head of State, like the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, for a consultation of the French on immigration. While the left, through the voice of Manuel Bompard, leader of LFI, campaigned for a referendum on pensions.
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Emmanuel Macron “observed that evening that the parties do not agree on anything, except the fact that the French must be able to express themselves more”, summarizes Jonathan Guémas, who heads the “response” cell of the presidential party, Renaissance. An idea that the Head of State shares, convinced that, to overcome the democratic crisis, it is necessary “give back the voice to the people”, according to the former pen of the Elysée. Emmanuel Macron had therefore proposed, that evening, to initiate work in the field of article 11 of the Constitution, which establishes the conditions for a referendum. “The referendum has this advantage: it is not a simple consultation. In the end, the people decide. Nothing is more democratic”he said on October 4, to the Constitutional Council, for the 65th anniversary of the Constitution.
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