They fear to serve as "spectators or commentators of a game that happens elsewhere". The Open Democracy group, composed of "yellow vests", activists, local officials and journalists, addresses Wednesday President Emmanuel Macron an open letter about the "great national debate". Deploring "the precipitation, the vagueness, the uncertainties, the lack of commitment and transparency" of the process, the hundred signatories advance three measures that they believe would guarantee "legitimacy and efficiency".
Create an independent observatory. In their text, entitled "Succeeding the Great National Debate For a New Democratic Breath" and published by Le Parisien , they propose, in the first place, to participate in the creation of an independent "Observatory" to ensure the transparency of the device, in addition to the five guarantors already designated.
Organize a multiple choice referendum. They ask, then, the creation of a citizens' assembly drawn by lot, in charge of elaborating a multiple choice referendum, which would be submitted to the French at the end of the process. Such an approach would, in their view, make it possible to translate the results of the deliberations politically, which might otherwise remain a dead letter.
To perpetuate participatory democracy. Finally, they want to launch a "toolbox" of participative practices (online deliberative platforms, animation methods, etc.) to sustain new forms of citizen engagement. Without this, they fear that the great debate is only an isolated parenthesis.
The signatories, including the "yellow vests" Medhi Bolic and Marie Valero, the former COP21 negotiator Laurence Tubiana, the director Cyril Dion or the journalist Fanny Agostini, call to be "up to the stakes". For the moment, they consider that the conditions for a relevant debate are "not met".