In a Le Monde op-ed, experts and officials advocate for citizen-initiated referendums amid rising distrust in institutions. Seven years after the yellow vests revolt, French people express a strong desire for active participation. Past consultations, like the national debate, have yielded no concrete results.
The yellow vests revolt seven years ago highlighted a deep divide between political leaders and citizens. Over 2 million grievances collected at the time revealed a clear aspiration to be heard and to shape collective decisions. Among these submissions, the call for a citizen-initiated referendum (RIC) stood out prominently, a demand that endures beyond the movement.
This aspiration mirrors a broader fracture: formal consultations that ignore citizen input and unkept promises. According to the 2025 Cevipof Barometer, only 26% of French people trust politics. The grievances from the national debate were published but led to no real changes. Similarly, the citizen convention on climate, promised "without filter" by President Emmanuel Macron, saw only partial adoption of its proposals, with the most ambitious measures discarded. This feeling of being used rather than listened to has eroded public trust.
In 2025, amid political instability signaling an unprecedented regime crisis, Emmanuel Macron pledged new consultations, potentially via referendum, twenty years after the 2005 vote and seven years after the yellow vests. Eleven months later, no referendum has occurred. Distrust in political representation has intensified, as evidenced by a petition signed by over 2 million people on the National Assembly website, calling to repeal a law passed without parliamentary debate.
Signed by political scientist Loïc Blondiaux, mayor Fabrice Dalongeville, activist Priscillia Ludosky, and deputy Marie Pochon, this op-ed emphasizes that French citizens no longer settle for mere participation: they want to decide directly.