Emmanuel Macron will receive the parties represented in Parliament on Wednesday at the Legion of Honor education center in Saint-Denis, as part of his “major political initiative” which could notably lead to the development of a ” preferendum,” government spokesman Olivier Véran announced on Monday. While each of the party leaders is invited to come up with proposals, “nothing is sorted, nothing is predetermined”, assured the government spokesperson on BFMTV-RMC.
In a letter to the parties, the Head of State stressed that the objective was to build legislative texts “together” and pave the way, “if necessary”, for referendums. But the president is also “open” to testing “a preferendum,” said Olivier Véran.
The choice of this education house of the Legion of Honor, created in 1809 and located near the Basilica of Saint-Denis, to a “symbolic value”, that of “meritocracy”, argued the spokesperson of the government.
“It’s a school for young girls whose parents have been awarded by the nation for special merits,” he explains. The establishment indicates that it does welcome, exclusively in boarding schools, “the daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters of French and foreign decorated with the Legion of Honor, the Military Medal and the National Order of Merit” .
“And it’s in Saint-Denis, which is a city that experienced riots” at the end of June-beginning of July, underlined Olivier Véran.
According to him, this “afternoon of work that the President of the Republic wishes to be productive” must be organized around “several axes”. “First the international axis […], but also on how to form a nation, on the return of authority, on immigration issues”, he detailed.
