Issy-les-Moulineaux (AFP)

Francois Hollande said Friday before elected women that it was necessary to "go after the decentralization" to "respond to the democratic crisis", regretting that today, "everything goes back" to the President of the Republic, "this who is not healthy in a democracy ".

The former head of state was speaking at the National Days of Women Elected (JNFE), which are held Friday and Saturday in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine). Created in 2012 at the initiative of left-wing politicians to promote parity in politics, the JNFE now bring together right-wing and left-wing women.

"There is a crisis of representation, not just at the highest level, because mistrust affects all elected officials in a very unfair way, it is a symptom of the crisis of democracy," Hollande said.

According to him, "the citizen has become more and more a consumer, very demanding of his elected officials, as if they were people on duty, as if they were to answer as civil servants to a request".

Another reason for this crisis: "the weakness of large political groups that they are old or new", which leads to "the fragmentation of the political offer, and, as we will see in the municipal, the proliferation of lists".

So today there is "the need to reintroduce intermediate bodies" to make "dampers": "the parties are weakened, the unions are divided, so who will be able to do this work of representation, delegation, proposals? they are the local elected representatives! "

Responding to the crisis also requires, according to the former president, to "go all the way to decentralization." I can look with pride but also regret what I did as President of the Republic, particularly the the fact that the intercommunality has been enlarged, but there has been no transfer of powers ", then" the decentralization movement slowed down, "he regretted.

"We also need a clarification of our institutions". Today, "everything goes back" to the President of the Republic, which is not healthy in a democracy and worsens the concentration of power "at the top." The role of the government, including the Prime Minister, becomes much more difficult " .

Another answer according to Mr. Holland to the crisis of democracy: "the territorialization of the policies The national policy must take into account the local specificities, while maintaining the common bond"

© 2019 AFP