François Bayrou recalls his promises to Emmanuel Macron

The idea, expressed very explicitly, is “to open and weigh in the presidential debate.” Because this democratic project is one of the weaknesses of Emmanuel Macron’s balance sheet. “We have to face the facts, we did not do the job”, slips a deputy. There have been exercises in direct democracy – the great debate, the citizens’ convention – but there is also everything that has been promised and has not been done: proportional representation, or the bank of democracy to finance countrisides… “Do not make institutional reformwarns the minister, it is to condemn oneself to new tensions in the event of re-election”, type “yellow vests”. The MoDems propose to the majority to take the subject head-on.

Two motions for resolution invite the introduction of a dose of proportional representation in the legislative elections so that the National Assembly is more politically representative, and to strengthen parity in local executives, in small towns in particular.

A bill submitted by the same group wishes to allow local authorities who so wish to experiment with postal voting… from 2026! Some are already ready: the president of the Mayenne Departmental Council, Olivier Richefou, has contacted La Poste, for the technical details, and with the Ministry of the Interior, to indicate his availability for an experiment.

This postal vote is also one of the proposals of “Young people with Macron”, in the booklet they presented Monday evening. It grows, and yet this measure has no chance of being adopted. In the centrist ranks, there are two explanations: either the executive is afraid that it will be misunderstood, that we imagine that it wants to change the rules of the elections; or the future candidate Macron wants to reserve the primacy of announcements, with an “institutional package” to come in his program. In which case the debates guided today by the MoDem will have served to heat the room.