2023-10-03 11:30:14
Laurent Wauquiez, president (Les Républicains) of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, during the LR youth campus, in Valence, October 1, 2023. MICHAEL ZUMSTEIN/AGENCY SEEN FOR “LE MONDE”
Sweeping away the law or regulations out of hand, in the name of a very personal conception of democracy. Laurent Wauquiez’s announcement to remove the region from the legal system of “zero net artificialization” of soils, Saturday October 30, at the congress of rural mayors of France, surprises no one in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, as does the president Les Républicains ( LR) of the regional council is accustomed to speeches with separatist tones within the regional hemicycle.
On March 10, for example, the leader of the regional right had his majority vote on a wish to denounce two opinions issued by the Environmental Authority, an independent body created in 2009 to assess the environmental impact of infrastructure projects. A first advisory opinion from the authority estimated that the road bypass project for the town of Vichy (Allier) risked harming local biodiversity, due to lack of adequate measures on the 12-kilometer route.
The second opinion expressed similar reservations regarding the improvement of the Clermont-Ferrand – Paris rail link. In its disapproving vow, the regional executive described the authority as“pseudo-independent entity which is not accountable to anyone and which is not democratically controlled”. Before driving the point home: “The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council asks the government to always consider the conclusions of independent administrative authorities as simple recommendations without any binding or binding value. »
“Denial of democracy”
During the vote on this wish by the plenary assembly, Laurent Wauquiez launched into a long diatribe against the control bodies of the institutions, guilty in his eyes of not respecting the legitimacy of elected officials, to the point of constituting a “denial of democracy”. “I don’t buy Republican technocracy at all. I think it’s a serious danger.”insisted the president of the region, before clarifying his thoughts in these terms: “Independent administrative authorities have become a democratic problem in this country. » The formula foreshadowed the content of his long interview given to Point two months later, in which the possible candidate for the next presidential election advocated the “removal of almost all independent authorities”.
In the daily exercise of his regional mandate, Laurent Wauquiez continues to develop and test concepts which are now appearing in broad daylight, like the specter of a “Deep State” who would govern in place of the elected, or the nuisance of“Parisian elites” who would dictate their law to local representatives. This anti-system discourse returns to each plenary assembly, more assertive since the health crisis due to Covid-19, often accompanied by unilateral announcements.
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