Laura Laplaud
modified to
09:00, September 02, 2022
To discuss the energy crisis, Emmanuel Macron opts for a meeting format he knows well, the Defense Council, frequently used during the Covid-19 pandemic. A meeting in which Elisabeth Borne and several ministers will participate, but not the opposition. Guest of Europe Matin Friday, Franck Riester, Minister in charge of Relations with Parliament, denies it.
Emmanuel Macron meets Friday at 10 a.m. a Defense Council devoted to the energy crisis. Around him, the head of government Élisabeth Borne and several ministers like Bruno Le Maire and Agnès Pannier-Runacher. “There are decisions to be made to deal with the potential risk of energy supply”, declared Franck Riester, Minister Delegate in charge of Relations with Parliament, guest of Europe Matin on Friday. “There are urgent decisions to be made. How do we manage to ensure that our country will not have a supply disruption?”
Does the executive want to bypass Parliament?
But this Defense Council is not to everyone’s taste, in particular the opposition, which denounces a way of circumventing Parliament and avoiding real democratic dialogue. For Franck Riester, “there can be a debate and there must be a debate” but in this kind of situation “there are secrecy-defense dimensions”.
“These are important data and the government is accountable, of course, it must share the decisions it takes. But there are times when we must be able between ministers, with the competent services, the president of the Republic, the Prime Minister, to take decisions within the framework of the secrecy-defense”, he decided.