It is time for a change for Emmanuel Macron. He had announced a few weeks ago, he wished, for the remainder of his mandate, to reinvent itself. And seemed particularly ready to engage in a new sentence of decentralization. At the beginning of the month of June, the head of State had asked the boss of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, to participate in a reflection to lead on the post-crisis period related to the pandemic Covid-19. The politician LR is so delivered, Thursday, July 2, 50 detailed proposals in the matter. And Emmanuel Macron seems willing to address the issue of decentralization. In an interview with the regional daily press, revealed on Thursday evening, the head of the State announced a "major conference of the territories this summer".

Asked about his vision of decentralization, the president of the Republic is said to be "in favour of more differentiation, because I think that this corresponds to the time at the request of the territorial authorities and the need of the territories", while stressing that "nothing can be done without a broad consultation with all stakeholders". "With the differentiation, I am ready to facilitate the experiments," he continued.

The "false debate" of the postponement of the regional elections

He said that his priority "this is the reconstruction of the country. In the short term, it should not be that we lost in the great debates. We have to be pragmatic", he adds, saying "ready to associate all of the elected officials who are willing to the reconstruction effort". But "not by major institutional reforms, but through concrete policies. Differentiation. Association. Clarification. I want to join in launching as early as this summer a major conference in the jurisdictions where I want to in a very concrete way that we look at on a case-by-case basis, that we don't get lost in the debates of the temple", he insists.

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For the head of State, to postpone the elections departmental and regional "is a false debate". "This is not the president to decide, only, this question. If you are going to a new big-bang territorial authorities and massive transfers of skills, it can take months. Is this the priority, then we will have elections for the month of march and time is the reconstruction of the country ?", he asked.

The regional elections are to be held by march 2021, but the Government indicated in mid-June that the head of State had "opened the discussion" on a possible deferral beyond the presidential election of 2022, so that all the players are "mobilized for the revival of the country". According to the presidents of the regions, furious, the president would have conditioned the financial assistance of the State for the stimulus, for their support of this report. During a lunch at the Elysée last week with the presidents of the political groups of the Assembly, the head of State was forbidden to any "blackmail".