2023-05-08 06:00:26
“At the same time” pure sugar. Asked by THE Latest News from Alsace, on April 19, on the will of the Alsatians to leave the Grand-Est region, the President of the Republic opposes them an end of inadmissibility, without closing the door, however. Recalling that he granted them a form of autonomy with the creation, in 2021, of the European Community of Alsace (CEA), Emmanuel Macron specifies: “I am also attached to not creating new divisions. » He notes, for all practical purposes, that the Alsatians needed the Grand-Est region on many issues.
This affirmed, the Head of State slips: “I have always supported the principle of territorial differentiation, which must be at the heart of our institutional reflections. » The “at the same time” is so ambiguous that the president Les Républicains of the CEA reiterates his project of separation. Referring to the consultation at the start of 2022, during which 154,000 Alsatians indicated that they wanted to leave the greater region at 92.4%, Frédéric Bierry wrote in a press release on April 21: “When the time for institutional reorganization comes, in 2024, the time for Alsace will come. It cannot be otherwise if the President of the Republic wants to be there for the democratic renewal that he calls for. »
Everywhere in France, regionalism finds colors. The victory of the Polynesian separatists in the territorial elections on April 30 could pave the way for a referendum on self-determination. Corsica discusses its autonomy with the government. On May 5, the city of Nantes wrote to the Prime Minister on behalf of several communities to obtain a referendum on the attachment of Loire-Atlantique to Brittany. In 2017, the Basque Country formed a sprawling inter-municipality bringing together 158 municipalities, 315,000 inhabitants, 1,200 agents to manage 21 public policies.
In a country that has devoted so much energy, over the centuries, to uniting peoples with jealous identities, this question remains sensitive. In 1968, General de Gaulle had certainly pronounced the funeral eulogy of vagabond aspirations: “The centuries-old effort of centralization, which was long necessary [à la France] to achieve and maintain its unity despite the differences of the provinces which were successively attached to it is no longer essential today. On the contrary. » But the situation now appears more fragile than ever. To what extent can freedoms be granted to the territories in an old Republic still worried about its unity?
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