What are the solutions to the democratic crisis? Speech text by Valentine MESTRE, FENELON

You heard Mathilde predict a dangerous future for Europe; that’s why I want to give you five possible solutions to our crisis of democracy.

My first solution:

Representative democracy is becoming a bit of a joke. Let me give you some examples which show that the traditional political system is being challenged:

• In Italy, the system is run by an “anti-system” party hand in glove with an anti-democratic party;
• In Hungary: an autocrat has been (paradoxically) re-elected;
• In Poland: the government’s abuse of power has extended to undermining the independence of the courts;
• In France: the “yellow vests” movement has imposed its mob rule on Macron;
• In Ukraine: the new president is an actor whose only political experience is… playing the president in a TV show!

A solution to avoid more dictocracies (that is: dictatorships disguised as democracies) and prevent widespread anarchy, would be to introduce a more participatory/direct type of democracy.

Let me give you two examples:

1) The “RIC” is a referendum at the initiative of citizens without the mediation of their political representatives (RIC stands for “Referendums by Initiative of Citizens”) which would allow citizens to amend the constitution, dismiss a political official, delete an existing law or propose a new law. According to the Lausanne University researcher Antoine Chollet: "… (the RIC) does not necessarily reconnect citizens with politicians but it reconnects them with politics in the broad sense".

2) Swiss-style popular votes in which citizens are asked to vote on one or more issues related to federal, cantonal or communal policy. The authorities have to apply the result of the vote, whatever it is. In Switzerland, voter turnout saw a continuous decline since the 1970s, down to an all-time low of 42% in 1995. In recent years however, voter participation has been slowly growing again and was at 48% in 2011.

Thanks to a more participatory system, giving citizens more say in decision-making, democracy would become more meaningful, getting people involved in and responsible for their country’s progress. Of course, a direct democratic system should be complementary to the representative democratic system, reinforcing it and making it more legitimate to ordinary citizens once again.

Let’s move on to my second solution to the crisis of democracy:

EU communication is inefficient: people continue to find the European Union boring, bureaucratic and to be blamed when things go wrong. Why vote for the European Parliament when we don’t understand what it does? So, the solution is: the EU must make communicating with the people on what it stands for and what it does a priority; only then will people want to “get involved” (as written on the Parliament website).

OK, my third solution:

The director of the Department of Political Science at the University of Montpellier, Jean-Yves Dormagen, considers that voting procedures must be simplified. I agree, because voter abstention is becoming so bad that it is making a mockery of democracy. Voting via internet is the solution! It would make things easier for everyone, especially busy workers or those living abroad. In Estonia, where e-voting has been used for more than ten years, the number of people voting has increased a lot.

Now for my fourth solution:

Politicians are rarely seen as honest, competent and bright. How can we make voters trust their elected representatives more? I think people who want to get elected should first have some experience of work outside of politics, not get re-elected more than once, or hold more than one elected office. Also, we should reward politicians only if they make their region or country progress. This is what happens in Singapore where Ministers receive bonus payments only if GDP goes up and unemployment down.

Here is my fifth and last solution:

The EU needs ordinary people from the member states to work together to defend our common beliefs such as the freedom of speech, an independent press, equal rights, the rule of law, democracy. Organizations such as Citizens for Europe and the European Movement offer us the opportunity to fight for a democratic Europe. For example, Citizens for Europe organizes workshops where you can learn about fundamental rights and how to defend democracy against the rise of nationalism, racism and the shrinking of civic spaces. There is a European Movement association in Clermont-Ferrand which organizes conferences on Europe, trips to Brussels, etc. You can become a member of course. I would encourage you to do so, for democracy’s sake…