Foreign nationals may take part in Big Debate

It comes as the website granddebat.fr has officially opened today, and will be open for people to submit ideas directly online as of January 21.

Connexion sought to find out if the Grand Débat, launched yesterday, is open to those of other nationalities who live in France such as British or American people, as President Macron did not clarify this in his recent open letter to the nation that was addressed to ‘my fellow citizens’.

A spokesperson for the Grand Débat National said: “Citizen or not, resident in the national territory or not – as well as elected politicians, institutions, non-profit-making associations and businesses – the government wishes that the greatest possible number of people should participate in and organise debates.”

The spokesperson said the government wants the debates to be as wide-ranging and representative as possible and they are notably looking to local mayors to organise debates in their areas, open to all.

People may already create an account on the website by clicking Inscription. Connexion queried why under the ‘status’ section for creating an account there is only a ‘citizen’ option (along with ones for clubs and businesses etc), however we were told this essentially means ‘member of the public’; what is more this section is optional, however you do need to provide a postcode in France.