Cyril Dion's response was not long in coming.
Less than 24 hours after the interview with President Emmanuel Macron on the online media Brut, the director and activist, guarantor of the Citizen's Convention for the Climate (CCC), signed a column in the newspaper Le Monde to ask the chief to the State to respect its word in matters of environmental policy.
Asked about the implementation of the CCC's proposals, Emmanuel Macron considered it normal to assess all the consequences and not to adopt them as they are.
"I do not mean that because the 150 citizens wrote something, it is the Bible or the Koran", replied the president.
"I am really very angry with activists who helped me at the beginning and who now say, take it all."
A pique towards the director Cyril Dion, who launched an online petition to "save the Convention" which has exceeded 300,000 signatories in two weeks.
The director rejected the criticisms of President Macron in an interview with France Inter, explaining that he wanted to be "constructive".
He feels it is his duty to "step up to the plate now" so as to save the bill being drafted.
. @ EmmanuelMacron apparently got mad at me on @brutofficiel.
And @franceinter asked me what I thought about it.
#BrutMacron pic.twitter.com/DDdshdVHgM
- Cyril Dion (@cdion) December 4, 2020
In the columns of the World, Cyril Dion returns to the criticisms leveled against him.
"You say I'm not 'honest', that I'm doing a 'caricature'.
Beyond the perplexity evoked to me by this arrogance towards me in the mouth of the President of the Republic, it seems to me that it is you who do not respect the word you have given.
And that it is worrying for several reasons ", writes the director.
"I made a commitment, if you did not respect your word, to come forward and to be the guarantor of the respect of your commitment towards the citizens. This commitment, it is you who made it. Nobody forced you to it. It was also extremely courageous on your part, "recalls Cyril Dion.
He then returns in his text to the various milestones that led to the creation of the Citizen's Climate Convention, the work of which began in 2019. And he describes the "gradual unraveling" of the measures proposed by this participatory body.
A failure that risks weighing heavily on the meetings scheduled this week with the executive.
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR