Les Gracques
The group Les Gracques is a French think tank and interest group with a social liberal orientation, which aims to renew the French left in this sense.
history
During the 2007 presidential election campaign in France , a group of former socialist officials published an open letter under the pseudonym Les Gracques , in which they spoke out in favor of the socialists joining forces with the UDF . The choice of the pseudonym underlines the reform orientation of the group. Ségolène Royal said at the time: "Ces ultralibéraux passés dans le monde des affaires n'ont aucune leçon à me donner" (in German, for example: "I will not be taught by ultra-liberals who have switched to the economy"). Some of the members voted for the UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy .
After the defeat of the socialists in the 2007 presidential election, the group changed its appearance, it became something that has the characteristics of a think tank and an interest group that seeks to renew the French left. It reorganized itself into an association according to a law of 1901. It also published a "Manifesto for a Modern Left". Since then it has been possible to join the association. In 2008 the association had around thirty active members and around 1700 sympathizers who had signed the Manifesto for a Modern Left on the Internet . On the fringes of the PS 2007 summer university, the Gracques organized a secret meeting of European, reformist-oriented think tanks. They demanded the adoption of an economic and political platform from the assembly, with Emmanuel Macron , then the finance inspector, to play the decisive role.
At a meeting with Les Gracques, the winner of the open primaries (primaires citoyennes) and thus the candidate of the PS, François Hollande , explained his political goals: a supply-oriented economic policy, the reduction of government spending and the improvement of the competitive conditions for companies. During the presidential election campaign, the Gracques ran election calls in the press calling for government spending to be cut, working hours longer and the retirement age raised, and for an end to the 35-hour week, tax relief for companies that Relaxation of protection against dismissal and the opening up of professions with admission restrictions. After the end of Hollande's first year in office, the Gracques declared that his policy was too "erratic" (arbitrary). In 2014 they published an appeal in Le Point , which among other things said: "End the madness! La frontière entre la gauche et la droite ne passe pas au huitième dimanche travaillé. Ni au treizième"; They also defended the application of Article 49.3 of the French Constitution to encourage the adoption of the Law on Promoting Economic Growth and Revitalization and Equal Opportunities in Economic Life ( Loi pour la croissance, l'activité et l'égalité des chances économiques ), Loi Macron for short , a law that Manuel Valls applied several weeks later.
In April 2014, Aquilino Morelle, a former advisor to François Hollande, blamed the Gracques for his liberal turn.
The alliance between François Bayrou and Emmanuel Macron on the occasion of the 2017 presidential election is believed to stem from a Gracques push.
To the name of the group
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and his brother Gaius Sempronius Gracchus , known as the Gracches, were statesmen of the Roman Republic . They belonged to the plebeian nobility. They were best known for their hesitant and unsuccessful attempts to reform the Roman social system.
Under the pseudonym Les Gracques , Marie-Noëlle Lienemann , Alain Richard and Jean-Pierre Worms had published a programmatic book in 1983 entitled Pour réussir à gauche (éditions Syros), which at the time was considered the "Neo-Rocardian Manifesto".
The group's viewpoints
The policy represented by the Gracques was largely derived from the discrepancy they perceived between the Keynesian welfare state, on the one hand, which is usually preferred by the socialists, and contemporary society, which is shaped by globalization and the European project.
The Gracques project is an attempt to combine the values of social justice and advocacy for the poor with the values of the market economy and economic openness. One feels reminded of the British Third Way ( New Labor ).
In their manifesto, the Gracques defined themselves as democrats, liberals, integrative (as opposed to communitarianism ), worker-friendly, not averse to state regulations, devoted to the redistribution of wealth, progressive, they emphasize the importance of education policy, they name security policy as one of their priorities , they describe themselves as “ecological”, “pro-European”, “internationalist”, “moral” and “realistic” and advocate social change.
In December 2012, they published an analysis of the first months of François Hollande's presidency in Le Point magazine . In it they noted that the situation was serious and that the situation was urgent. They named the reasons for this: “Parce que le pays pâtit toujours du laxisme passé: celui des déficits permanents, de l'excessive fiscalité des entreprises - réduisant leurs margins, donc leur capacité à investir - et du surendettement”. ("... the previous laxity from which the country has always suffered, hence the constant deficits, the excessive taxation of companies - which cuts their profits, thus also their investment opportunities and their over-indebtedness") They condemned the "inertie des administrations ( qui) a conduit à la paralysie ”(“ the sluggishness of the administration which leads to paralysis ”) and demanded a“ réforme du secteur public ”,“ plus nécessaire que jamais ”(a reform of the state sector, more necessary than ever).
Suspected members
According to press reports, the number of members that has grown since its inception includes: Jean-Pierre Jouyet until he joined the Fillon government in 2007, Denis Olivennes , Matthieu Pigasse , Bernard Spitz , who was one of the Those responsible are François Villeroy de Galhau , Ariane Obolensky , René Frydman , Sylvie Hubac , Érik Orsenna , Éric de Chassey , Dominique Villemot (Vice-President of Gracques), Mathilde Lemoine , economist and head of the department for economic studies and market strategy at HSBC France and former advisor to Finance Ministers François Loos and Thierry Breton and Dominique de Villepin . Emmanuel Macron is said to have belonged to the Gracques in 2007. While his press department denied in 2015 that this was ever the case and that he only attended a meeting in 2008, a member of the Gracques said that, to the best of his knowledge, Macron had attended the meetings until 2012.
The summer university
The Gracques held their first summer university in Paris on August 25, 2007. Numerous celebrities such as Michel Rocard , Anthony Giddens , Walter Veltroni , Peter Mandelson and François Chérèque took part. They wanted to start the renewal of the French left by mobilizing civil society and with the help of their web presence. In October 2007 the Socialist Party distanced itself from the Gracques and declared: "Les Gracques ne représentent rien." ("The Gracques do not represent anyone").
On November 21, 2015, the summer university originally intended for the Sciences Po University was relocated to the CESE building because of the Paris attacks that had taken place a week earlier . The closing speech was given by the Minister of Finance and future President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron . The former President of the Italian State Council Enrico Letta took part in the exchange of ideas at this meeting, together with Daniel Cohn-Bendit , with the founder of Club XXIe siècle , Hakim El Karoui , the former Foreign Minister of Spain Ana Palacio and the Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation Sharan Burrow .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Le Point, March 22, 2007
- ↑ a b c d e Marie-France Etchegoin, “Conseils d'amis”, Vanity Fair No. 25, July 2015, pages 112–117 and 149–153.
- ↑ Manifeste pour une gauche moderne ( Memento of the original of April 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Article of March 3, 2017 in Le Monde
- ↑ Le redressement, c'est maintenant , lesgracques.fr , December 2012
- ↑ "Entretien de M. Jean-Pierre Jouyet avec Paris Match " ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on the website of the French Embassy in the United Kingdom
- ^ "Denis Olivennes" , Franceculture.fr , May 21, 2007
- ↑ Grégoire Biseau, Argent double in: Liberation , February 10, 2009, online: [1] .
- ↑ Les "Gracques" veulent remettre la gauche sur le chemin des idées , Le Monde.fr , August 26th 2007
- ↑ Mathilde Lemoine (Les Gracques) - 1er forum of think tanks , Fondation pour l'innovation politique, January 7, 2011 called November 9, 2011
