• This Monday evening at the cinema Les 3 Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the preview screening of the documentary film by Emmanuel Gras

    Un peuple

    took place .

    Dealing with the subject of yellow vests, a debate was then held in the presence of Clara Egger, Esprit RIC candidate for the 2022 presidential election.

  • An ardent activist for the constituent Citizens' Initiative Referendum (RIC), this 34-year-old teacher-researcher is an expert on the RIC, on which she has been working for years with her husband Raul Magni-Berton, teacher at Sciences Po Grenoble and director of his campaign.

  • The entire program of the movement is based on the desire to convince the other candidates to include the constituent RIC in their program and to continue to make this mechanism known to elected officials.

“The French are Swedes ruled by Bulgarians.

At the mention of this sentence, the small cinema hall "Les 3 Luxembourg", in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, bursts out laughing.

Just a few minutes after the preview of the documentary film 

Un peuple

 by Emmanuel Gras on the Yellow Vests, this Monday evening, the public fully understands the analogy with citizens who demand democratic participation and leaders who love verticality.

Present for the occasion, the protagonists of the film, the director Emmanuel Gras therefore, Agnès, Nathalie and Alan, three of the Yellow Vests of Chartres that the documentary follows, are accompanied by Clara Egger, professor of international relations at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and… presidential candidate 2022.

Yellow Vests as a springboard

The presence of Clara Egger is not due to chance or electoral opportunism, the candidate is invited as an expert in the citizens' initiative referendum (RIC), one of the main demands of the yellow vests.

"The idea of ​​the RIC is very old, but the Yellow Vests were a great springboard to install it in the democratic debate", explains the 34-year-old teacher-researcher, who denies being the candidate of the "GJ “: “I am too respectful of the partisan aspect to which the Yellow Vests hold.

Moreover, our movement brings together yellow vests but also people who strongly opposed it.

»

This is the other common point of his movement, Espoir RIC, with the Yellow Vests: it brings together people from all political sides.

For a good reason since there is no question of talking here about security, purchasing power or immigration, the candidacy of Espoir RIC revolves only around the constituent citizen initiative referendum.

A couple who have the RIC at heart

This is why the group approached Clara Egger and Raul Magni-Berton, her husband, professor at Sciences Po Grenoble: “Raul and I have been working on the RIC for years.

We participated in the definition of the project together and most often work in pairs, as for the writing of our book

RIC: The shared initiative referendum explained to all

(FYP editions) released in 2019. »

In this adventure, Raul Magni-Berton, campaign manager, is in charge of the "Ideology, strategy and coordination" part, while Clara Egger takes on the role of spokesperson and representative: "My aim was not to to present myself.

Then it was suggested to me and I said to myself that writing forums as an academic is good.

But at some point, we can take action.

»

Competence and pedagogy, a suitable profile

The choice of the teacher for candidate is not lacking in arguments: “It is easy to ridicule an initiative and an application when it is marked Yellow Vests, because they have been greatly despised.

But, and it's sad to say, it's more difficult when it's someone who has a doctorate in these subjects.

»

The other point that weighed in the balance was the movement's desire to put forward a young woman, to show that democracy, "is the promotion of profiles that we see less in politics".

Raul Magni-Berton also underlines the candidate's qualities as a speaker, not without a good dose of self-mockery: “We say the same things, but when I speak, people are shocked or don't understand.

When she speaks, everyone thinks she's right and that's what to do.

»

It must be said that the young woman of 34 years is inexhaustible and unbeatable on the subject.

Passionate, she answers all the questions and all the doubts expressed by the public about the RIC with an assurance and a pedagogy that must make some of her fellow teachers blush.

Credibility objective for the RIC

A few moments after the screening of the documentary, facing a skeptical viewer about the RIC, Clara Egger calmly delivers what could be a preamble punchline: “We often talk about the faults or risks of the RIC, yet we remain myopic about those of the system. current.

»

Then, as a parallel to Alan, who in the documentary, is sorry to see politicians express their fear of seeing the Yellow Vests fall into extremes, Clara Egger recalls that for the RIC, the refrain is the same: "We always hear that it will be the return of the death penalty or another berezina.

Yet the facts are there.

»

The researcher can then string together examples and studies like so many ramparts against reluctance: Switzerland uses it, several states in the United States, Uruguay, the Netherlands and recently Taiwan also do it.

And these countries have not descended into chaos.

Trust in the people

On the contrary, even according to Clara Egger: "The use of the RIC produces more transfers from the rich to the poor, fewer tax loopholes, fewer useless major works that only serve the glory of elected officials, more rights, in particular for the minorities.

You have to trust people, they are not only interested in their small personal interests.

»

Even better, according to the researcher, a Swiss study shows that being able to vote on proposals and vote regularly increases the political knowledge and skills of citizens.

An effect that would be similar to several years of study for people who have not reached the baccalaureate.

Above all, this opportunity to participate in the democratic life of the country gives back time to abstainers according to Espoir RIC which publishes numerous testimonies on its site.

In the public of the cinema “the 3 Luxembourg”, the impression is the same for Sidonie, 21 years old: “I do not know for whom to vote because no candidate convinces me.

But with the constituent RIC, I could choose the least bad, and influence its policy through the RIC, by militantly.

For Clara Egger, the constituent RIC would be a sword of Damocles on the heads of elected officials who would remind them of their mission, to be at the service of citizens.

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Convincing elected officials… and other candidates

The candidate is under no illusions as to her chances of reaching the Elysée.

“That's not the goal, she confirms even with a laugh, what we want is to infuse the idea of ​​the RIC in the other candidates to convince them to include it in their program.

Already taken up by Charlotte Marchandise and Alexandre Langlois, the idea also interested Jean Lassalle who had already tabled a bill in the National Assembly to impose it.

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The proposal of the deputy of Pyrénées-Atlantiques had obtained only 6 votes in favor, or 1% of the vote.

Proof of the gap between elected officials and their voters according to Raul Magni-Berton: “The latest IFOP poll carried out on this subject shows that 73% of French people are in favor of it.

Those who are reluctant to do so are the elected officials and the wealthiest classes, who are the only ones to feel well represented.

In a country where the majority represents only 13% of voters and where one in five French people thinks they are in a totalitarian regime, it is urgent to apply it.

»

Armed today with only 16 sponsorships (2 more were being validated by the Constitutional Council on Monday), Clara Egger continues to canvass.

To obtain the signature of elected officials, of course, but also to continue to present the RIC and convince of its necessity.

For the Hope RIC candidate, there is no doubt about the future arrival of the constituent citizens' initiative referendum: "The question is not whether the RIC will be applied one day, but rather when .

»

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  • Paris

  • yellow vests

  • Referendum

  • Presidential election 2022

  • Elections

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