2023-10-25 07:00:08
The president of the CESE, Thierry Beaudet (left), with Elisabeth Borne and members of the government as part of a social conference at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, in Paris. October 16, 2023. JULIEN MUGUET / JULIEN MUGUET FOR “LE MONDE”
While the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) votes on its annual report on the state of France on Wednesday October 25, its president, Thierry Beaudet, discusses the possible impact of this consultative body of civil society and on the political responses to be made to reduce inequalities.
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This is not the first time that the CESE has alerted the government about the state of France, without it following up on your recommendations. Why would he do it this year?
Our report has a positive effect because it is a booster shot. It shows that the themes highlighted – inequalities, purchasing power, eco-anxiety – do not disappear, even when we talk about them less. Even as other subjects burst into the news and tend to take up all the space.
Furthermore, the announced presence of the government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, in our hemicycle on Wednesday, during the vote on the report, marks an interest from the executive, which I find increasingly attentive to our work. Generally speaking, the links between our council and the government – as well as those between our council and Parliament – are more regular, more continuous.
The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, must present, Thursday October 26, the government’s responses to the riots which took place in July. Don’t you fear that they will be exclusively sovereign (security, increased criminal sanctions, parental responsibility, etc.)?
It’s a fear, indeed. If this is the case, our analysis at the EESC will be different. The regalian is not the ready-made answer to all of the country’s problems. What the report shows is that the French have an increased perception of inequalities, the first factor of which, according to them, is place of residence, then cultural origin, skin color and gender. And they measure the consequences of these inequalities in terms of difficulty in accessing employment, education, health and public services. It’s something incredibly present. Such subjects are at the heart of the problems of the city’s priority districts (QPV). We cannot attack these subjects from the sidelines, separately.
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One thing strikes me: I observe that we do not treat our fellow citizens in priority neighborhoods like the others. At the time of the “yellow vests”, the way to get out of the crisis was to meet the French to listen to them, with the “great debate” and more than 2 million contributions. Without comparing phenomena of different nature, I observe that when it comes to priority neighborhoods, the answers are ready-made, without even considering that it can be useful to listen to the residents. When we speak of regalians, we give the feeling of referring them only to their violent fraction.
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