Hello Hervé Gattegno. The coming week will be marked by the opening of the famous "big debate", that Emmanuel Macron has launched to get out of the crisis of "yellow vests", and we still do not really know how it will happen. In your opinion, under what conditions can this debate be a success?
The first condition is the clarity of the organization. From this point of view, it is true that the fact that we still do not know exactly who will co-ordinate the work, how the discussions will really be conducted, is not a good sign - for a big debate, this is not a good start. Then we need the guarantee of independence, that the power will not control in one way or another what will be said. That's why the choice of who will drive this business is essential. Another condition is that the "yellow vests" do not disrupt this great debate.
In other words, they would have to suspend their movement during the three months that all this is going to last - they want us to hear them, so they have to participate. And then beyond that, there must be a very large number of citizens participating, because suddenly, the ideas that come out will have weight, they will prevail. With this paradox, the more participants there are, the more difficult it is to organize a debate. So the risk is that: the more it works ... the less it works.
You mentioned the person who will lead this great debate. We must replace Chantal Jouanno, who withdrew. Who do you think would have a good profile?
I would first like to say that what Chantal Jouanno has done is quite unworthy. Instead of giving up her mission because her salary is controversial, she would have done better to give up her salary, even partially, even temporarily. Or to resign. In terms of replacing it, you need someone who has the height, the experience, who is not an affidé of Emmanuel Macron and who has the capacities of listening and organization to take up a challenge the same. The one who ticks all these boxes is Jean-Louis Borloo, who had made the Grenelle de l'Environnement, who was mayor, minister, who is a moderate, and who is in cold with Emmanuel Macron - what has become a quality. I'm not sure he wants it. But if it takes a more daring solution, which would astonish the French and that would be a way for Emmanuel Macron to revive with audacity, I have a solution to blow him: François Hollande.
He has the stature, he would have authority. He is not very busy. He himself said he was very attentive to the "yellow vests". And the quality we have always recognized is the art of synthesis. And since his relationship with Emmanuel Macron, nobody would doubt his independence ... I know it sounds like a joke, but I'm serious. It must be said that when it comes to Francois Hollande, everything always looks like a joke ...
For the Great Debate to succeed, must it not also have an outlet; that is to say, it produces proposals for concrete reforms?
Of course - and deep down, it's not that easy. We must arrive at forms of consensus on measures of common sense, reforms that are not retrograde or dishonorable for France - I am obviously thinking of the death penalty or abortion. It can be on the functioning of institutions, on taxation, on public services; it can be the revenge of common sense on the technocracy, because we talk so much about the cut between the citizens and the elites.
At the exit, I am convinced that it will be necessary that Emmanuel Macron extracts several proposals to submit them to a referendum. If all goes well, it can give a real breath of fresh air to the country. If it trails, if it turns off, if it blocks, Emmanuel Macron will have a hard time getting over it. So we must not lose sight that it is a great debate that can cause great damage.