In Lyon, the town hall multiplies experiments for a shared exercise of local power

The year 2022 will also be the year of democratic transition for the city of Lyon. The town hall led by ecologist Grégory Doucet is launching several local democracy devices in the coming months, hoping to convince people of the relevance and effectiveness of an innovative exercise of power. Flagship project: the participatory budget, for a total amount of 50 million euros for the entire mandate, unprecedented in the history of Lyon’s municipalities. It was adopted in the spring of 2021. Its regulations, submitted to the next municipal council on January 22, must define each stage of its use.

How to collect proposals, on what criteria to select them, support them, as well as ensure their feasibility? The instructions for use provide for all the information, consultation and co-construction procedures for collective projects. After the vote on the regulations, the town hall is planning, on March 14, the establishment of a digital platform on the website of the city of Lyon. Open to the public, this platform will be a tool for dialogue between elected officials and the population.

The participatory budget is made up of two envelopes of 25 million euros. One is reserved for places chosen by elected officials, whose construction or development will be undertaken in consultation with the people of Lyon. For example, a place to renovate, chosen by elected officials, redesigned with the inhabitants. The other envelope of the participatory budget is devoted to projects entirely suggested by citizens, more in the field of urban development or uses.

“Well-being Barometer”

The municipal majority hopes to carry out at least one citizen project per borough, without forgetting the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Participatory budgets have already been tested in Paris or Nantes. The Lyon formula is intended to be broader, inserted into a system made up of different types of consultation. The new participation tools are called upon to operate in conjunction with existing and regulatory bodies, such as neighborhood councils, citizens’ councils, or local interest committees.

“We are gradually setting up a participatory ecosystem. Neighborhood councils are revitalized and associated with other mechanisms. We are making a qualitative leap in our local democracy practices. We are no longer in a top-down practice of power. Everyone must have the feeling that they can carry out structuring projects for their daily lives”, explains Chloé Vidal, assistant (EELV) for local democracy, accountability and student life.

At the same time as the participatory budget, the town hall is developing a “barometer of well-being”, which consists of collecting the concerns of the inhabitants, in the form of local opinion surveys. A first barometer was carried out at the end of November on the market on avenue Jean-Jaurès, in the 7^e borough. The results are expected shortly.

The elected municipal officials of Lyon carried out a first participatory experiment, from the start of their mandate, by establishing the Covid-19 advisory council. One hundred and eighty inhabitants and one hundred and twenty associations have been invited to meet regularly to formulate opinions in the management of the health crisis. At the same time, opinion surveys have provided data on the feelings of the population, with regard to vaccination, social distancing or the personal impact of the pandemic.

“Risk” initiatives

After six workshops, one hundred and forty-five contributions were sent to elected officials. This has inspired several measures, such as a better targeted prevention campaign, or the presence of mediators in the town’s vaccination centre. “We have taken these opinions into account. We felt a real expectation from the participants. This advice encouraged us to work with all the assistants. Participatory democracy must also change the way we operate within the administration, in a more fluid and transversal way”, analyzes Chloe Vidal.

The council received the participation and consultation trophy, awarded by the National Assembly. However, participatory democracy does not win all the votes within the municipality. The opposition mocks the initiatives “hazardous”, sometimes judged “misleading” because “decisions were already made in advance”.

Laurence Croizier, municipal councilor (UDI), is not convinced by the first attempts of the environmentalist majority. “I see a big difference between theory and practice. While we were told of a totally open consultation for the renovation of the right bank of the Rhône, fixed choices were offered to the public, which had not even been discussed in the preliminary meeting between elected officials and services. I found that very disrespectful to elected officials. »

“Politics is there to decide with a little height, with an essential overview. The elected officials carry out a real work of reflection, they are there to feed ideas, their exchanges help a city move forward, but I have the impression that we want to circumvent them. This disempowerment bothers me a lot,” continues the councilor of 6^e district of Lyon.

“You have to be clear and sincere from the start and right to the end of a participatory process, by providing information on the framework we have adopted, on the leeway we have. We establish a democratic contract at each consultation. The chosen one is placed in a listening position”, replies Chloe Vidal. The process begins. A deputy directorate general for proximity and relations with residents has been specifically created to develop an engineering specific to participatory democracy. The town hall led by Grégory Doucet is betting on a new practice of power. Convinced that the old political world no longer provided the animation essential to democratic health, the mayor wants to demonstrate that ecology also knows how to take care of the societal and political environment.

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