The drawing does not lack humor. In All concerted! Small handbook of participatory etiquette (State of mind, 2022), booklet designed by the main actors of environmental democracy, an elected official sighs: “Basically, we must organize a consultation for people who think it’s folded in advance…” “You understand quickly”, replies his interlocutor. The dialogue sums up with a smile the malaise that has been going through the small world of environmental democracy actors for several years.
In a country ” where the institutionalization of citizen participation in the field of the environment is the oldest and most ambitious on a European scale”, According to the researcher and vice-president of the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP) Ilaria Casillo, the principle of public participation, enshrined in the environmental charter, has been engraved in stone since 2005 in the Constitution. Every year, hundreds of public inquiries, public debates, consultations and electronic consultations are organized on infrastructure operations or public policies affecting the environment.
From the construction of roads to the installation of wind farms, from the common agricultural policy to the decree governing the fishing of eels under 12 centimeters in fresh water, whole sections of public action are thus subject to public criticism. Nevertheless, “the continuous increase in offers of participation has paradoxically not made it possible to stem the dynamics of conflict or reduce antagonisms”, observes political scientist Alice Mazeaud, teacher-researcher at the University of La Rochelle and co-author of the book The Participatory Democracy Market (Ed. du Croquant, 2018).
Stiffening of public authorities
Opposition has even increased over the past ten years with the appearance of areas to be defended in Notre-Dame-des-Landes (Loire-Atlantique), Bure (Meuse) or more recently in La Clusaz. New forms of protest have been organised, targeting both development projects and the governance that accompanies them. Collectives oppose, in the four corners of the country, in urban or rural areas, the construction of expressways, warehouses, basins, and “no longer present themselves as the simple victims of a social and territorial injustice, but as the representatives of a wrong done to democracy”notes Jean-Michel Fourniau, director of research emeritus at Gustave-Eiffel University.
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