The appointment of Boris Ravignon, Les Républicains (LR) mayor of Charleville-Mézières, as head of the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe), the ecological transition agency, was challenged Wednesday, April 12 by parliamentarians. This is the first time that a candidacy proposed by the Elysée, at Ademe or elsewhere, has been rejected since the introduction of this procedure in the Constitution, in 2018.
In total, thirty-two parliamentarians voted in favor and fifty-seven voted against, i.e. more than three-fifths required under the Constitution to oppose an appointment proposed by the President of the Republic, at the end of the election. Hearing of Mr. Ravignon before the National Assembly’s Sustainable Development and Regional Planning Committee, Wednesday morning.
???? Presidency of the Board of Directors of the Ecological Transition Agency (@ademe) ❌ Unfavorable opinion of the P… https://t.co/2j1MFa4sTt
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Mr. Ravignon was appointed by Emmanuel Macron last December to act as interim head of the structure due to the resignation of the president in place, Arnaud Leroy. This appointment had been validated on December 14 by the parliamentarians, despite a majority of votes cast against, but without three-fifths being reached.
But following the renewal of Ademe’s board of directors on February 14 and the official end of Mr. Leroy’s mandate, Mr. Ravignon’s appointment had to be reconfirmed by parliamentarians.
During the morning debates, deputies and senators notably criticized Mr. Ravignon for his refusal to resign from his mandate as mayor following his first appointment to Ademe. Mr. Ravignon had argued, Wednesday morning, “the interest of staying in contact with the field” to better fulfill its mission, emphasizing that this was “legal” and was “already happened in the past”.
“The combination of a national agency with the post of Mayor of a city of 50,000 inhabitants is just not reasonable” explained on Twitter National Rally deputy Nicolas Dragon, who took part in the vote.
The Senate’s regional planning and sustainable development committee castigated the procedure carried out by the government, its president, Jean-François Longeot, UDI senator from Doubs, even describing it as“grotesque” the fact of having to hear Mr. Ravignon again for the second time in barely 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, the mayor of Charleville-Mézières had supported Emmanuel Macron against the LR candidate, Valérie Pécresse, for the presidential election. The two men, both enarques, worked together at the general inspection of finances in Bercy, before Boris Ravignon joined Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, then he became mayor of Charleville-Mézières in 2014.