LEurope and France have entered a new era. A more worrying world where, to the ecological catastrophe, there are added every day more numerous threats to democratic institutions. Our continent is once again experiencing war, while everywhere, authoritarian proposals flourish on the soil of economic difficulties and social concerns. They thrive thanks to the absence of ambitious, courageous and mobilizing political projects.
In this context, we must rely on clear principles to guide political action, and draw a horizon for our societies. This is why we say forcefully, as the European elections approach and the French government talks about a possible reform of our institutions, that federalism constitutes for us a cardinal political principle, which allows us to respond effectively to the challenges that are before us.
Because federalism guarantees both respect for human rights and respect for a just and peaceful international order, it promotes the recognition of peoples, their diversity, and their necessary autonomy. It says the will to unite them in a perspective of sharing and solidarity, in order to be stronger together. Because federalism reaffirms our democratic ideal, it proposes to bring citizens closer to the powers, to make them participate more and better in the management of their affairs, and to provide each territorial level with its own means and margins of action which engage the responsibility of all.
Chamber of Regions
This is why we are calling for the deepening of European construction in the direction of a federal Europe. The war in Ukraine like Brexit and the resounding failure of British isolationism, which has divided the people of Great Britain more than ever, have highlighted the necessary union of European democracies in the face of authoritarian perils. It is also necessary, for the same reasons, that these democracies grant full autonomy in their internal affairs to their nationalities.
We are therefore calling for the creation of a chamber of European regions, a “Senate of the regions”, working in liaison with the Parliament and the executive of the European Union. This Senate must be endowed with real powers and represent the voice of the territories at Union level.
In France, centralism, which is at the very heart of our institutions and has continued to strengthen in recent years, fuels democratic malaise. By concentrating most of the powers at the national level, and increasingly in a single person, it contributes to the weakening of democratic culture, civically disarms our compatriots, when it does not push them towards false authoritarian solutions. .
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