In 2015, François Hollande decided to merge the regions of France with the main criterion of “halving” their number. The objective is, it is said, to compare with their European counterparts in size.
The size argument is symptomatic of the Jacobin vision of a political power which sees itself first and foremost as powerful to dominate and impose, rather than as efficient, democratic and close to citizens and the field. Most federal countries have city states, like Hamburg, or small states like New Jersey, where people live very well.
Allow regions to vote for their own laws
For our regions to be comparable to those of our neighbors, we should on the contrary allow them to have a great deal of budgetary and fiscal autonomy and let them vote their own laws.
Stéphane Pean, specialist in governance, who maintains a page on Linkedin entitled “Le Réveil des Territoires”, affirms that the French regions do not have a problem of size but of “political leadership”, and therefore of cohesion and relevance.
They were designed as a level of deconcentration of State administrative management and decentralization of the implementation of decisions; and not as autonomous entities, that is to say not as “territories with a civic capacity to decide, arbitrate and assume coherent public policies”. The president of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region recently recalled that 90% of his budget came from state grants.
Lack of autonomy paralyzes public action
This lack of autonomy coupled with the complexity of the administrative millefeuille fuels conflicts between the different levels of communities, paralyzes public action and weakens democracy. This institutional entanglement also allows each actor and local elected official to shift their responsibilities to other levels.
The subject of local borders is essential to improve the effectiveness of political action, to respond relevantly to today’s issues, and to increase democratic legitimacy and cohesion, by having culturally, geographically and historically more coherent groups.
The path to federalism
Federalism, now mostly supported in French public opinion, is the only system which makes it possible to sustainably guarantee this flexible and adaptable vision of political and administrative perimeters over time, according to developments in history, culture, demography, the economy, etc.
Thus, in Canada, the powers attributed to the provinces have evolved significantly, particularly at the request of Quebec; in India, a state was split into two at the request of the populations; in Switzerland, each municipality is free to join the canton (the upper level) of its choice even without geographical continuity.
This redistribution should not be decided from the salons of the Élysée but based on broad consultation of the people concerned.
The example of autonomous Alsace
The recent question of the detachment of Alsace from the Grand Est region voted on in the National Assembly has the merit of highlighting an essential debate where the issue is not to satisfy identity desires but to be able, in the medium term, to respond to daily problems.
Two methods oppose each other to give more autonomy to communities. The first, “from below”, consists of letting local elected officials request new prerogatives or modifications to their administrative boundaries. This logic has the merit of respecting subsidiarity and local will.
However, it is ineffective if each local executive indulges in a status quo posture: posture demonstrated by the recent forum of ten regional presidents, who opposed the idea of an autonomous Alsace outside the Grand Est region. The second logic, “from above”, is faithful to the Jacobin tradition: a national decision which is imposed from Paris in a uniform manner on all communities.
A reform to move towards the French Federal Republic
Between these two blocked logics, there appears a step-by-step path of reform to get France out of this impasse, made up of local demands and national laws, which should make it possible not only to define the perimeter of regions, departments, communities of municipalities and communes but also to regroup some of these levels, to make them disappear, to split them up…
We are talking about slow changes but which, if they are done well and generate support, will bring a lot to public action for decades or even centuries.
On the eve of the 2027 elections, we have the opportunity to initiate a debate bringing together local and national elected officials and the population to put an end to the aberrations of our administrative millefeuille inherited from two centuries of Jacobinism.
Alsace, by wishing to merge the prerogatives of a department and those of a region, is showing us the way. The mobilization for its exit from the Grand Est constitutes a step towards this French Federal Republic that we are calling for, the most adapted to respond to the challenges of democracy and efficiency.
(1) Luc Landrot is vice-president of the Union of European Federalists – France, responsible for French federalism. He has a double degree in engineering and anthropology in France and Switzerland. Involved for around fifteen years in federalist organizations, he is currently writing a white paper on behalf of UEF France on the establishment of a French Federal Republic.
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