Emmanuel Macron received the 150 members of the Citizens' Convention this Monday morning in the Elysée Gardens - CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / POOL / AFP

  • Emmanuel Macron's response was quick. A week after receiving the report from the 150 members of the Citizens Climate Convention, the Head of State received them on Monday at the Elysée Palace.
  • The opportunity to reiterate its promise to submit without filtering the proposals they have identified to lower our greenhouse gases, either to the government, to the parliament, or to the French people.
  • All of them? Not quite. Emmanuel Macron puts forward three jokers, notably on the proposal to reduce speed on motorways by 110 km / h. Anger of 150? Not really.

They seemed a little impressed to find themselves, this Monday morning, at the Elysée. Witness the many selfies taken on the steps of the palace, then on the other side of the building, in the Jardins de l'Elysée where the 150 citizens of the Citizen Climate Convention have long waited for Emmanuel Macron, their host of One day.

Amused therefore, but not to the point of forgetting the stake of this exchange with the President of the Republic, eleven months after having received this strange phone call proposing them to integrate this convention and nine after having started their first session of work, early October. Their mission? Identify and discuss solutions to reduce by 40%, by 2030, France's greenhouse gas emissions in a logic of social justice.

The time has come to do, to act.
I was committed to it, I keep my word: 146 of the 149 proposals that you have made will be sent either to the Government, or to the Parliament, or to the French people. pic.twitter.com/HTdKL5tarm

- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 29, 2020

"It's up to you to take over"

This mission, they completed it on June 21, at the end of a final weekend of work, by giving Elisabeth Borne, Minister of the Ecological Transition, their final report. Over 400 pages detailing 149 proposals.

"It's now up to you to take over," says Lambert Allaerd, addressing Emmanuel Macron. Of the six spokespersons chosen to present the nine months of work of the convention, the Lille was the last to take the microphone, with the responsibility of expressing the expectations, from now on, of the 150, on what politicians will do, their report. "We do not offer an à la carte menu, but a set of interdependent measures to keep a planet livable for humanity" had already warned, just before, Mélanie Cosnier, another citizen of the convention to take the microphone. "We hope that you will be faithful to your commitment to pass our measures without filters, either directly in the regulations, or in parliament," continues Lambert Allaerd.

The convention also wanted measures to be put to a referendum, specifically those aimed at modifying the French constitution. On this aspect, the 150 would like it to be specified that the Republic guarantees the preservation of biodiversity, the environment and the fight against climate change and that the crime of ecocide is recognized. "

@ les150ccc express themselves fervently before @EmmanuelMacron @EPhilippePM @Elisabeth_Borne @brunepoirson @EmmWargon @Djebbari_JB, representatives of @AssembleeNat and @Senat and @lecese. We will hear the President of the Republic just after. #faitesle https://t.co/8HBieBZtqn pic.twitter.com/gnOaHSzHwh

- The 150 - Citizens of the Climate Convention (@ les150ccc) June 29, 2020

Combining “ambition” and “consensus building”

The answer from Emmanuel Macron? It was long. Over forty-five minutes of a speech that began by paying tribute to the work of these 150 French people. "Everything in this democratic and human adventure constitutes a world first, as much by its ambition as by its scale," recalls Emmanuel Macron. And your commitment, so constant and so strong, was also a first. The President of the Republic also welcomed the constant concern of the convention to combine "[climatic] ambition" and "search for consensus". "You have understood the state in which our democracies are today," he believes. Some say that they took a slap at this convention, that they discovered the emergency, but you all understood the fact that we cannot respond to this emergency by dividing, opposing and making people feel guilty. "It is sometimes the error [forgetting the search for consensus, Editor's note] that we made, me first, in any case continues Emmanuel Macron. We can only do this by taking on board all of our fellow citizens. "

In the end, Emmanuel Macron said he agreed with many of the report's proposals and did not backtrack on his promise. At least not completely. "I confirm to you that I will go to the end of this moral contract which binds us, by effectively transmitting all of your proposals", he assures the 150.

Emmanuel Macron argues three "jokers"

All of them? Not quite. Emmanuel Macron claims three jokers. The first veto relates to the proposal to tax dividends by 4% in companies that distribute more than 10 million annually to finance the ecological transition. "It would reduce our chance of attracting additional investment," said the president. Joker also on the proposal to reduce speed to 110 km / h on the highway, which has already caused much ink to flow. "We must postpone this debate, judge Emmanuel Macron who fears that this measure encloses a little more regions and municipalities and completely obscure the rest of the report. Finally, Emmanuel Macron also opposes the modification of the preamble to the constitution desired by the agreement. "It threatens to place environmental protection above public freedoms," he believes. It would be contrary to our constitutional text, to the spirit of our values. "

For the rest, Emmanuel Macron has promised that the measures that fall within the regulatory field will be addressed at a next ecological defense council by the end of July. Others will be integrated into the economic and social recovery plan to be detailed by Emmanuel Macron in early July. Finally, "a specific bill will be presented by the end of the summer and will integrate all of your measures which fall within the legislative field and which will have to be finalized in the coming weeks," continues the President of the Republic. The head of state also committed to opening at least one referendum. "By 2021," he says. And it will relate to the introduction of the concepts of “biodiversity, environment, fight against global warming” in article 1 of the Constitution.

The possibility of a referendum if it does not go fast enough

Be that as it may, the 150 members of the Citizens' Convention will be closely associated with the elected representatives in the work of taking up their 146 proposals [if we remove the three famous wild cards]. This is the other promise hammered by Emmanuel Macron this Monday morning: that of involving the members of the convention at all stages of the discussion in the follow-up to their report. The president even gives them "a right of alert", "if a block seems incomprehensible to you or if something seems not to be ambitious enough".

And if things do not go quickly enough, the Head of State has opened the way for a second possible referendum, "from 2021", on the basis of article 11 of the Constitution, which would aim to submit to the French d 'other measures of the convention, even if he did not specify this Monday which.

Shame about the 110 km / h on the highway?

What reassure and content the 150? At the cocktail hour after speeches, opinions were divided. Lambert Allaerd kept cross the throat rejection of the proposal to limit speed to 110 km / h on the highway. "To succeed in the ecological transition, we will have to ease off, literally and figuratively, and this measure was a symbol of it," he slips, while considering that it was better to postpone this debate, as long this proposal crystallized the debates. "I can also understand the argument put forward to reject the 4% tax on dividends, but it remains frustrating, it must not always be the same as paying. Here again, Lambert Allaerd hopes that the question is just postponed and not totally abandoned.

A little further, the Rennais Grégory Olivier Dos Santos, also fumed. "My disappointment dates back to last Sunday, since we were made to understand that very few of our proposals would be submitted to a referendum," he said. It is a shame, because many deserved it and not only those concerning the reform of the constitution. We even had to go to the referendum on the question of 110 km / h on the highway. We would have had a real debate. "

Environment: Emmanuel Macron offers two referendums. @ les150ccc now have a lot of work to follow up on their measurements and not give up on anything ... But what a road traveled ... Bravo to them. https://t.co/Y7psMjarmT

- Cyril Dion (@cdion) June 29, 2020

See you in September

Mélanie, from Hauts-de-Seine, prefers to see the glass half full. "Admittedly, he retained three proposals but these were indeed divisive within the convention, indicates the first. If the 146 others pass or will be able to continue working, it is very gratifying for us. This is also what Jean-Luc Verdière has learned. "I understand the three" jokers ", including the dividend tax that I supported, he says. This is all the work we learned during the convention: understanding others and their differences of view. No doubt we have not seen all the impacts of this proposal. "

Of the 146 other measures, this Picard says he is "hopeful" about how they will be taken up by the executive and the parliament. In any case, he intends to remain attentive, like the 120 other members of the convention who have already joined the association "Les 150" created to monitor over time the follow-up given to their report. Mélanie has already ticked a date: "In September, the response of 150 citizens to the president is planned," she said. On this date, we will already know a little more if the promises of Emmanuel Macron's speech on Monday morning have been kept.

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