Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP 6:12 p.m., January 31, 2024

This Wednesday, before the Senate, the Prime Minister hoped that a law on decentralization would be "presented" before the end of the year. Furthermore, Gabriel Attal advocated, before the Upper House, a "strong Senate" with which he said he wished to "overcome the divisions". 

Gabriel Attal expressed his hope on Wednesday before the Senate that a law on decentralization would be “presented” before the end of the year. “I hope that a law built with associations of elected officials will be presented before the end of 2024 to draw the conclusions of Eric Woerth's mission,” affirmed the Prime Minister in his general policy declaration to the Upper room. Renaissance ex-LR MP Eric Woerth "will deliver his first conclusions by spring", he said.

Improving public action

"Our objective is simple: to move beyond sterile debates on which level to keep or remove, and to focus on the means to really improve public action. The rule must be simple: for a skill, you need a manager and a dedicated financing", detailed Gabriel Attal. The mission on decentralization does not aim to eliminate certain local authorities, in particular the departments, assured Eric Woerth in November, but to "more responsibilities of those who exercise the skills, more clarity" and "more simplicity in the standards ".

In the mission letter sent by President Emmanuel Macron to the MP, he was asked in particular to look into "the simplification of the territorial organization, with a view to reducing the number of decentralized strata which are currently too numerous". The Prime Minister also said he wanted to "establish a real status for local elected officials" in the face of the vocations crisis and the rise in violence. A Senate bill on this subject is on the agenda for the coming weeks.

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“When (the) violence is added to the burden of the mandate, to the addition of standards which increasingly constrain the action of elected officials, sometimes unfortunately, some give up,” underlined Gabriel Attal. “Who attacks an elected official, attacks the Republic, attacks our democratic model, attacks the very foundations of our society. The Republic will always owe protection to its elected officials,” he added.

Gabriel Attal campaigns for a “strong Senate”

“We need the Senate,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal assured Wednesday before the upper house, once again developing his government roadmap by advocating a “strong Senate” with which he said he wanted to “overcome the divisions”. The day after his general policy speech delivered to the National Assembly - and read in parallel in the Senate - the new head of government repeated the essentials of his projects, placing particular emphasis on local authorities, defended by the " Chamber of Territories.

"When the Senate is weak, the Republic is weak. When the Senate is strong, the Republic is strong and when there is no Senate, there is no longer a Republic. These words are not mine, but I make them mine,” said Gabriel Attal at the opening of his speech to senators, attracting applause from most of the benches in this hemicycle dominated mainly by the right and its centrist allies.

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“I cannot imagine the Republic without bicameralism and even more so in a period of crisis, in a period where events multiply and challenges add up. We need the Senate, need its capacity to embody, to both the height of view and the proximity to the French", added the Prime Minister. Focusing on citing the work of different senators from various political groups, the head of government spoke at length about the role of mayors and local elected officials, two issues dear to senators. “Mayors are the most lucid, those who have the most comprehensive vision of all these constraints, all these obstacles in the lives of our fellow citizens. It is therefore with them that we will build solutions,” he said. affirmed.

In a room which has very few elected officials from the presidential camp, Gabriel Attal expressed his "confidence" in the senators, who share with him "the love of France" and the "desire to act". “I have confidence because we know how to overcome divisions here,” he concluded. The Prime Minister's speech was listened to rather silently by the senatorial right, while some applause rang out at the end of the speech in the aisles of the centrist group, LR's ally in the upper house.