The record abstention in the first round of departmental and regional elections interrogates. Its reasons are undoubtedly multiple. The desire to escape following the reduction in health protection measures, the failures in the routing of professions of faith, could have contributed to diverting the ballot boxes. Less cyclical reasons have also certainly played a role: borders which are sometimes difficult to establish between traditional right and left, themselves partly confused, a feeling of incomprehension between “political class” and citizens, progression of “what’s the point?” »… Abstention, however, has so far always been less strong at two levels: at the level of the municipality when there is a real stake (several competing lists, in particular) and at the national level (legislative and presidential ).
Increase citizen desire
It is at the intermediate level between these two scales that abstention is very strong. However, since the 1980s, decentralization has considerably increased the weight of the territorial executives: in terms of budget, political and administrative structures, effective role in the life of citizens. They should therefore be more visible, arouse more citizen desire. However, it is the opposite that occurs (with, however, sometimes significant differences from one territory to another).
One can, as a citizen, wonder about this disaffection. One of its reasons, it seems to me, lies in a lack of readability. Despite all the speeches and all the reforms, the stacking of territorial strata has been reinforced: municipalities, cantons, countries, communities of municipalities and agglomerations, departments, regions … The tangle is such that it is difficult to find your way there. Important decision-making structures (such as agglomeration communities) escape direct democratic control. At the level of the department, political figures sometimes suffer from a lack of notoriety. At the regional level, it is the national political staffs which often lead the dance. Sometimes called into question, the national civil service tends to see its workforce and its influence reduced. While the territorial public service is strengthening.
More citizen readability
Everything happens, in the end, as if decentralization had given birth to a system that is both antagonistic and complementary. Antagonistic because the local and the national are constantly on the ropes. Complementary because the financial disengagement of the State corresponds to the strengthening of the political and administrative infrastructure of the territorial executives. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of cantons was almost halved, the number of departmental councilors increased by around a hundred. The passage from 22 to 13 regions was recorded without the criteria for redistribution being even presented.
More citizen readability for our territories undoubtedly requires a reduction of the territorial millefeuille associated with a real taking into account of identities.
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