INTERVIEW
The head of state accepted Monday almost all of the 149 proposals from members of the Citizen Convention on Climate (CCC), except three. He also approved the idea of submitting certain measures to referendums, as early as 2021. "The referendum on environmental issues is something we don't want," said Arnaud Schwartz, president of France Nature Environnement (FNE), on Europe 1 Tuesday.
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The threat of the weight of lobbies
The president of FNE, which brings together 3,500 associations for the defense of the environment, fears that with the referendum, people are "not given enough time" to "understand" what they should decide at a specific time. But above all, he fears "an enormous imbalance" with "lobbies carrying private interests who have the financial means to communicate, without common measure with the defenders of the common good or with the State which would organize the referendum".
For a referendum, there are no "rules", which differentiates it "from an electoral campaign where there are measured speaking times, controlled budgets", supports Arnaud Schwartz.
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Emmanuel Macron said Monday "ready" to submit to referendums from 2021 certain proposals of the CCC on the one hand to introduce the fight against climate change in the Constitution, on the other hand concerning "one or more texts of law "incorporating other proposals from the CCC.
The CCC voted Sunday in favor of a referendum aimed at making the crime of "ecocide" into French law. However, it rejected the idea of using the referendum for other specific measures. "The referendum, for environmental issues, which are very complex subjects, is difficult to use," concludes the president of FNE.