Town councils for young people

I HEARD that my town has a conseil municipal des enfants. What is this? G.K.

Many communes around France have these “children's town councils.”

This is an initiative that helps get children interested in local politics and allows their opinions to be heard.

Local rules vary, but typically they are elected for two years by their schoolmates from among children at the end of primary school (CM2).

The idea is to familiarise them with concepts such as elections and debates; for them to propose and help to organise public service projects; and to canvass their ideas for improvements in the town, which are passed on to schools and the mairie.

Their meetings (at which adults are on hand to advise) range from small group ones to discuss a project in a certain area of town to occasional full meetings, which the mayor