Launched three months ago by a collective made up of associations of mayors, large associative federations, the French Mutuality and Odas, the National Day of Citizenship and Fraternity, scheduled for September 25, suffered from a heavy handicap: time. In a few weeks, it was necessary to inform and convince thousands of interlocutors of the usefulness and feasibility of the approach. However, today, several thousand municipalities and associations have organized one or more events for this occasion. And it is now certain that this initiative will allow the extension of an unprecedented dynamic in favor of citizenship and fraternity. Because, beyond the actors already engaged in this process, the partnership will gradually expand to all the organizations which also work to promote fraternity or to those which act in this direction. It is now a question of defining a process built and thought out together, with several challenges.
Ways of Gathering
The first issue is the multiplication of Citizen Days. There are currently some in 2,500 municipalities, including some major cities, such as Angers, Troyes, Blois… In these municipalities, residents are asked to themselves propose actions that contribute to improving the environment and social life. , and participate in it. This made it possible to obtain surprising and lasting results, since throughout the year, we really see changes in individual and collective behavior.
Obviously, this is not the only way to restore social ties, because many other promising experiences exist. But these could be much better deployed across the country. In addition, it is desirable that mayors and associations engage in the metamorphosis of the role of the oldest among us. France has a fairly negative view of the elderly in society, whereas we could, by changing our outlook, make them decisive players in economic and educational development. There are considerable possibilities, as the experiences of Tool in hand, of Reading and making read, of Solidarité nouvelle vis-à-vis unemployment reveal. This would also make it possible to boost volunteering, which is maintained on a fun level, but which has difficulty developing in the direction of solidarity and social ties. Each municipality in France should equip itself with a volunteer center, making it clear everywhere that volunteering is not the enemy of jobs but that it contributes, on the contrary, to creating them by developing the potential of our country.
The timing is right
It is therefore a real cultural revolution that this first action to mobilize our fellow citizens wishes to instill, to participate in the absorption of the many fractures that are weakening our country. And the time is right, because two current preoccupations of the public demand more fraternity.
This is first of all true of insecurity: how can we think of putting an end to it without giving a societal perspective to all young people, some of whom are often called upon by community networks? This is also true of the climate, because the concept of fraternity has the merit of translating the idea of interdependence in the face of this planetary issue much better than others.
This is why, on the eve of the presidential elections, let us dare to assert that the real political divide is there: between those who precipitate our country into the instrumentalisation of fear, and those who, on the contrary, remain concerned about building a sustainable world because fraternal.
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