Jacques Serais and Alexandre Chauveau, edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez 06:17, September 08, 2022

This Thursday launches the National Council of the refoundation, without the presence of the oppositions.

The council is still debated among political opponents of Emmanuel Macron, but the head of state wants to believe in the effectiveness of this CNR.

He wants to make this new method of discussions a solid basis for "building and building together". 

After the Great Debate in 2019 and the Citizen's Climate Convention in 2020, Emmanuel Macron now wants to bet on the National Council for Refoundation.

The Head of State is launching the CNR this Thursday morning, where around fifty participants supposed to be representative of "the living forces of the Nation" meet at 9:30 am at the national rugby center in Marcoussis.

If the President of the Republic has faith in his National Council for Refoundation, the bet is far from won.

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"A new way of debating" for Emmanuel Macron

It has not yet started that it is already criticized from all sides.

"A gadget" for the National Rally, "a bazaar" for the Insoumis and even a "new thing" for former President François Hollande.

The contours of the CNR still remain relatively vague, even if Emmanuel Macron tried to clarify once again on Wednesday what it was about.

“This National Council for Refoundation will allow us to engage in constructive dialogue, define shared objectives, co-construct public policies and coordinate in action,” he said.

"Today we must invent something new, a new way of debating. Not a new institution, we already have enough of them, but the method for building together and building together."

Five themes will be at the heart of the debates of this first meeting: Education, Health, full employment, "old age" and finally the ecological transition. 

Macron "is putting in place something that should not exist"

The Élysée, for its part, promises a CNR "in an interactive, frank and unfiltered dialogue".

However, if the leaders of the eight associations of elected officials have confirmed their presence, the main leaders of the opposition parties will not be there.

The list of participants pales in comparison: just fifty-three people.

"The absent are always wrong. The sulking will eventually end," hopes a minister, convinced that the outstretched hand strategy will eventually pay off, at least in public opinion.

The opposition, for its part, denounces above all a circumvention of the role of parliament, like Henri Leroy, LR senator from the Alpes-Maritimes: "This thing is at odds with all citizen participation in the elections. The President of the Republic is putting in place something which should not exist because there is a parliament on the one hand, and local elected officials on the other", he is indignant.

'This is why it is inadmissible and intolerable that we can thwart the entire representative system of elected officials, territories and citizens.

It's really taking people for fools."

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 Decentralization: before the CNR, David Lisnard underlines "major progress with Macron"

Guest opposite Sonia Mabrouk on Europe 1, David Lisnard, president of the association of mayors of France "We said that we did not believe in the format of the CNR because we think that it is a great mass of display, but we are respectful of the institutions and we have set our conditions, he explains. The President of the Republic gave us an appointment and agreed with us on the observation of the civic crisis and the fact that the we're at the end of the system."

During their meeting, there were major advances according to the president of the association.

David Lisnard continues, and describes a two and a half hour "very frank and very direct" discussion with the president.