Put democracy back at the heart of the debate in order to fight against abstention and mistrust of the French vis-à-vis politics. This was the stated objective of the exercise in which the candidates for the presidential election engaged at the invitation of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese), Wednesday, February 23. Yannick Jadot, Fabien Roussel and Anne Hidalgo followed one another in front of the members of the Cese and in front of the journalist Djamel Mazi who moderated the debate. The candidates spoke on various topics such as the functioning of the institutions, the place of social dialogue, civil society, youth or even citizen participation. Find the summary of their positions.
The absence of young people on the menu
For Yannick Jadot, first candidate questioned, the abstention of young people is “a subject major“. To put young people back at the heart of politics and fight against abstention, he believes that it is “we must restore confidence by doing what we promised to do”. According to him, public policies must “take more interest in the subjects of young people”. “Underinvest in school, underinvest in education, underinvest in research”, it is to build the speech of Zemmour which advocates “collective suicide”, judged the environmentalist candidate, who wants to go in the opposite direction. For her part, Anne Hidalgo called for increasing, from an early age, “municipal children’s councils, citizens’ assemblies, youth councils”. The latter recalled its intention to establish the right to vote at 16 years old. A measure which, according to her, makes it possible to “to give this taste of democracy”.
Ecology at the heart of the debate
Yannick Jadot called for “pay close attention to what is taking hold in our country as a debate on the climate”. “We don’t ask a single candidate how he is going to respect the recommendation, the requirement of the scientists not to exceed 1.5°C…”he lamented, hammering that the issue cannot be reduced to a debate “nuclear versus wind turbines”. For his part, Fabien Roussel, the communist candidate, proposed a conversion bonus to facilitate the ecological transition. “I defend air quality, but I would like to defend air quality without necessarily hitting the working class”, he defended.
Transforming Institutions
Yannick Jadot said he was in favor of the return of the seven-year term in order to be able to work over the long term. For his part, Fabien Roussel, in search of a Sixth Republic, proposes the abolition of the election by universal suffrage of the President of the Republic and of Article 49.3. The socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo denounces, she, a “republican monarchy in which there is vertical power with a single man who decides everything, all the time”. “I am for the president having much less power in terms of appointments”explains the one who would also like “put back proportional” for the legislative elections.