This is the first time that a candidate proposed by the Élysée, at Ademe or elsewhere, has been challenged since this procedure introduced in 2008 in article 13 of the Constitution. Emmanuel Macron’s appointment of the LR mayor of Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes), Boris Ravignon, at the head of Ademe, the ecological transition agency, was rejected this Wednesday by Parliament. A “historical first”, the Senate’s Regional Planning and Sustainable Development Committee. And a decision largely caused by Boris Ravignon’s desire to combine several functions.
Thus, more than three-fifths of the elected members of the competent committees of the Assembly and the Senate voted against, i.e. the quota required under the Constitution to oppose an appointment proposed by the President of the Republic, at the end of the election. Hearing of Boris Ravignon on Wednesday morning. In detail, a total of 57 deputies and senators voted against, and 32 for.
” It’s necessary to choose ! »
Ademe is not an administrative authority, but the agency participates in the implementation of public policies in the areas of climate and energy, and is a reference for companies and institutions on the ecological transition. The appointment of Boris Ravignon, for an interim period following the resignation in June of Arnaud Leroy from the presidency of Ademe, a year before the end of his mandate, had been narrowly validated on December 14 by parliamentarians. A majority of votes cast were against, but the opposition had not reached 3/5.
But, following the renewal of Ademe’s board of directors on February 14, and the official end of Arnaud Leroy’s mandate, it had to be reconfirmed by parliamentarians for Boris Ravignon’s mandate to be renewed for five years. In the morning debates, deputies and senators criticized him in particular for his refusal to resign from his mandate as mayor – he also remained president of the urban community – following his first appointment to Ademe.
The MP for Pas-de-Calais Emmanuel Blairy (RN) notably declared during the hearing: “We cannot manage a municipality of 50,000 inhabitants – we know how much the citizens need their mayor in these moments of crisis. – and ADEME. It’s necessary to choose ! »
Boris Ravignon had himself argued “the interest of staying in contact with the field” to better fulfill his mission, stressing that this was “legal” and had “already happened in the past”.
Support from Emmanuel Macron
The senatorial committee, following the vote, castigated the procedure carried out by the government, its president Jean-François Longeot, UDI senator from Doubs, even describing as “grotesque” the fact of having to hear Boris Ravignon again for the second times in just four months. “This vote reflects Parliament’s dissatisfaction with such unpreparedness, a new manifestation of the executive’s lack of consideration for it,” the senators said in a statement.
In April 2022, Boris Ravignon had given his support to Emmanuel Macron against the candidate LR Valérie Pécresse for the presidential election.
The two men, both enarques of the same generation (Boris Ravignon is 47 and Emmanuel Macron 44), worked together at the General Inspectorate of Finance in Bercy in 2004-2005, before Boris Ravignon joined Nicolas Sarkozy, then Interior Minister and running for the 2007 presidential election.
In 2008, Ravignon joined the cabinet of the president in charge of sustainable development, transport and regional planning and took part in the Grenelle de l’environnement. He has been mayor of Charleville-Mézières since 2014.