Trasncription from the speech of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, Quimper
MIL OSI Translation. Government of the Republic of France statements from French to English – Published on the 23rd of June 2018
Topic : International development and francophonie
ONLY THE SPOKEN VERSION SHALL BE AUTHENTIC.
Quimper – Thursday 21 June 2018
Ladies, Gentlemen, Ministers,
The Mayor of Quimper,
Ladies and Gentlemen Deputies and Senators of Britain,
Mr. President of the regional Council,
Madam and Gentlemen the Presidents of the county Councils,
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Mayors and Presidents of institutions of cooperation inter-municipal,
Distinguished Prefects,
Dear friends of brittany,
I am very happy to be among you for two days after, these last few months, have already had the opportunity to travel in the other two departments in the region that this move did not allow me to browse. Happy to find this land that I have trodden when I was a minister, and candidate in the presidential election and find the Brittany you are keen and that, like you, I like a lot.
Everywhere, I saw the flags of brittany alongside the French flags, and I will not make the mistake to see the sign of irredentism underground, no, but the sign of pride, which add up because it is what is played here. For a long time, I know that here, we are proud to be Breton, it is proud to be French at the same time and we are also proud to be European. And these prides are feeding in the most difficult hours as the most auspicious for the fierce breton and patriotism combined have many times in our History, showed their strength.
I was here a few days, the 18 of June at the Mont Valerien in the company of Daniel CORDIER, companion of the Liberation, and he told me that many of you know, her arrival in London. CORDIER was amongst the young people of his age, all almost children, as would have said MOULIN, who came for a great part of Britain, and particularly of the island of Sein, this quarter of France greeted by general de GAULLE. At the same time, a few weeks earlier, a majority of meps from finistère refused full powers to PETAIN. These men had this courage because they were Britons, because they were French, because all of them refused the dictatorship of the hatred and meanness servile. They were the equals of the heroes, these beautiful breton legends of men and women ready to die for the Grail, Grail, the freedom.
During this first year of the quinquennium, I kept a watchful eye on Brittany and I’ll always keep a watchful eye and caring about the british, first, because its representatives the most fierce with me I would not let you forget. I am not simply talking about Jean-Yves LE DRIAN or Richard FERRAND or the admiral ROGEL, who accompanies me every day and is born in these lands, my chief of staff, but also of all those elected officials who, every day, fighting, carrying a strong vision of Britain and engaging in the field. You can count on them to have made the Britain present to my mind, with a consistency that I would describe brittany.
But if I kept this attention, it is also because Britain is the land which expresses, at its best this “at the same time” which to me is so expensive, the synthesis of the particular attachment to a territory and of the universal that is the attachment to the Republic. It is only to read the wonderful memories of Mona OZOUF, who, in ” French Composition “, exhibited with art union of Brittany bretonnante and the French Republic in an imaginary happy is rooted in an ancestral culture and commitment to the ideals of the Republic carried out by the school, a secularism understood not preventing the influence of the social catholicism. Pierre-Jakez HELIAS before she had described the sometimes difficult path towards this balance.
It is this harmony that we find in these lands of brittany and I wish to France. It is this reconciliation, this peace that I try to build and example breton reminds me enough that it is necessary for it to also overcome the instinct of revolt, or rebellion, which is so much breton and so French. This ability to combine what some would see as opposites but which is enriched each other and what, precisely, our country needs. We need to both know how to bring our values, our traditions and embrace modernity, to be attached to our territories and bring the taste of the universal, which we did. This is the truth of these lands, in any case that I want to see and that I believe in.
In France, concerned, prompt, to the division, this balance breton is a great value and I say it here, in Quimper, whose name in breton, means Confluence, and it is this union of France and the French that, everywhere, we are working to build against the bigotry that opposes against the forces that thrive on the cleavage or the civil war. But make no mistake, the examples that I am come to seek here do not relieve the Republic to bring itself to the front of Brittany. The successes observed here should not give the State a good conscience, which would obviate the need to act. Ever, France will not forget Brittany. On the contrary, the State must build on the success breton to deepen this success and make it the model of what might work elsewhere.
Also I came in this morning to tell you three things and you ask for one. I will conclude with what I ask of you, but three things are to try to explain how to support the success of Britain and its sectors of excellence, how to build solidarity on the territory and a policy tailored precisely to this earth so special that I was able to conjure up several times with a number of your elected officials or economic actors, and try to say how, in doing so, Britain can become the laboratory of a France of the innovation of public action of tomorrow.
Yes, Brittany is the region copy who is successful in what she does and the State must act to decisively support this success by responding to these expectations is to consolidate the economic dynamics, the lines multiple that have already begun to succeed or that are fully installed in the landscape of the region. The first challenge of consolidating these centres of excellence obviously requires talk about the geography of brittany. I know nothing anyone here saying that Britain is the only peninsula of France, it is our position, advanced towards the ocean and its resources, it is the place where the coastline offers all of its riches. The report to the sea is therefore at the heart of the history, culture and the economy of brittany. It is this history of Britain with the sea, which justifies that the region, with the local authorities concerned, may have a particular role in the definition of the strategy sea and coastline of its territory. A first step has been taken with the creation of the regional conference sea and coastal areas the role of which – I will come back – will be strengthened.
But beyond that, it is also here that we can build the real laboratory of a spirit in the ocean of what is a part of France and what we can do and I’m talking about here, under the control, the vigilance of some of the great Britons who have had to officiate on these subjects of the sea, of fishing, of tourism for several years. Be where you are, with the spirit that is yours, it is also wanting to take a little of this spirit sea, which belongs to the French mind. France is both a country of land and sea. When she wanted to forget about its coastline, when she wanted to forget this part of oceanic sea, which is also hers, she is mistaken. This is the moment where she turned her back to the Edict of Nantes, it is the moment when she decided to retreat and give up the time to great conquests but also the courage to look at the grand large.
I believe very deeply that there is, in the presence of the sea, a constituent of Brittany, a part of the solutions for the country and a strategy that I want to be more widely worn during this five year period. But to have a maritime strategy, supporting it, making it successful, it is also to promote several channels that are at the heart of both the geography and the economy of Britain. It is foremost the course of the industrial sectors shipbuilding, ship-owners, the construction such as the repair of boats. Whether it’s Brest, Concarneau or Lorient, there are major players in this industry sector that we will continue to encourage, successfully, adapting as the rules with pragmatism where they should be to hold the european competition on these subjects is expected.
It is, of course, also be at the rendezvous in terms of fishing. We were this morning in Guilvinec with some of you. I know that the period is not totally unfavorable to our fishermen but I also know that they do not lack courage and that there are concerns which we will bring response. Their profession is exercised in a situation better than they have been at other times but this allows them to simply touch the just fruit of their labors remains rough and demanding, as I’ve seen this morning. I do not ignore the concerns that arise with the prospects of “Brexit” and here I want very clearly to say that the position of France will be clear in the matter, it is also from the first day and we have been with the european negotiator that is Michel BARNIER : we want to preserve our balances, access to fishing areas today guaranteed, fishing in brittany as to the regions concerned – and I think also to our friends in Normandy and the Hauts-de-France who feared for the access to british waters – and we will continue to be fully engaged on this issue to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
We will also continue – and the minister was in my sides this morning – to beat us on the issues that matter to our fishermen, to accompany them to the renewal of the fleet. We know the constraints, but in 10 years, two-thirds of the fleet will be renewed. We need to invest in accordance with the european law, but we think legitimately, that there are ways and means to do more and we will. We need to invest in training, to simplify the measures for the acceptance of trainees and apprentices and the law that happens in Parliament will be an opportunity for this sector, to carry precisely all of your requests and they are many and legitimate. Finally, we must anticipate the next common fisheries policy and facilitate the access to european Funds – the famous Emff – that we do not eat is not enough. And here, too, we must prepare the next generation to come.
Thus, we will be at the rendez-vous of the concerns of today but mainly of investments needed to prepare for the fishing of tomorrow, and allow more young people to make investments that are essential to be able to continue the activity. We were this morning with young entrepreneurs who have taken all the risks and sides which we need to find.
Speaking of the sea, it is, of course, also speak of the energy and I know that it is at the heart of strategies which are yours, those of the territory, and of many value chains. I announced yesterday the confirmation of the six projects were, I know, a long-awaited offshore wind. They have been validated, confirmed after tough negotiations which have led to improvements, for the public authority, the terms of these contracts, but they respond to a strategy of brittany range now for nearly 10 years with the Compact electric breton, it is the fact that Britain is, in this respect, too, a territory, a precursor that has seen, on the one hand, that it did not cover all his needs – 6 % at the time, she is now 14 % of what it consumes in the production of its own – and saw that she had the opportunity to do more and that the sea was just that, a source of opportunity to produce energy.
Experimentation of the first tidal turbines at Paimpol-Bréhat, Ouessant. Winner of the first tender for offshore wind turbines in Saint-Brieuc, off the coast of Cape Frehel where we were yesterday. Testing of the first floating wind turbine off the island of Groix.
On these topics, the time is now for action. The action, we have confirmed it yesterday at your neighbors of the Côtes-d’armor. The six projects are initiated and confirmed, with full visibility, and these are projects that will provide energy, with the connections provided, and which will also contribute to the development of industrial sectors on the whole national territory, since these are networks of production and, in the future, maintenance of these turbines.
I also hope that we can move forward effectively on projects of floating wind turbine and we talked about it this morning. These are topics expected to the south of this department. They are there as legitimate, they will provide the energy capacity and each time, they are only possible, of course, if the State agrees, gives visibility and tariffs, but that is because there is a collective commitment of the elect but of the entire economic and social actors in a territory. I low nothing of the difficulties that have preexisted in all of these debates. And we have seen yet, there are always irrédentismes because each time the subjects of conflicts of use, as it is said today : the boaters are never happy to see wind turbines arrive
On this subject, because the collective mind has also been responsible, I hope that we can move forward quickly. The floating wind turbine will be in my eyes one of the priority projects of the strategy to come.
The pace of development in the next 10 years will be specified by the minister of State, Nicolas HULOT, in the framework of multi-annual Programming of energy and it will be based precisely on these works and he will acknowledge what I have just mentioned at the moment.
Speaking of the sea, it is, of course, also speak of tourism, the preservation of the biodiversity of the coastline. And then also, on a territory that has managed to combine the opposites, that is to say, to combine the conservation is not conservatism. If we want to protect our coastline, if we want to move forward with a coast protected and, therefore, pleasant to see, to live and attractive for tourism and, at the same time, constitutive of a natural heritage to which we all strive, it is necessary to know how to protect. And this protection must be able to be combined with the economic activity of those who live there, grow up, want to wear new projects. We have discussed several times during these two days.
To protect, that is what we will continue to do so. We saw yesterday so great on the site of the Cap Fréhel on which I found myself with the ministers and your elected officials. This cliff that dominates the sea more than 70 meters, the bird sanctuary exceptional, had been damaged by tourism-intrusive, disrespectful of the landscape. The work of requalification of the landscape of Cape Freels will help to restore the full beauty of the site by moving the car parks, protecting natural areas, ensuring a better reception from the public because there has been a commitment to the Conservatoire du Littoral, an investment, support and commitment of all the elected officials. These works, conducted jointly by the State and communities, will restore all of its beauty at this site, the first place of tourism in the department of Côtes-d’armor. And it is also for this reason that we fully support the draft Large site covered by the territory’s elected.
I also hope that we can accelerate the work of creation of the regional natural Park Rancid-Emerald Coast who will devote years of effort to preserve the valley of the Rance, the coast of Saint-Malo to Cap Fréhel. We discussed at length yesterday with elected officials present, the development of coastal tourism should be done in the respect of biodiversity and sustainable development, with pragmatism and this project is part of what good development and it will complete the list of the Park of Armorique Park and the Gulf of Morbihan and the marine natural Park of Iroise sea, which, in fact, dedicated to the beauty of these territories and the need to preserve it.
But you are not not fallen in the conservatism that fact that, while protecting legitimately the coast, the coastline, the more no project would be possible. I know, we saw yesterday, some elected officials have lived with cruelty – we were talking about this morning – the projects that were able to be blocked by that, gradually, we built that is without a doubt vision excessive of the famous coastal act. The projects of the Sill would have been able to develop closer to the sea – I know what you think of the mayor of Brest on this topic and it is not wrong – but the mayor of Landivisiau may not be displeased with what happens to him, with a beautiful project that happens to him and that was confirmed the CEO of the Sill a few days ago. But all of it, what is it ? It is the fruit of a vision that we can’t explain with common sense. We want to protect the coastline, and we will continue to do so, and the coastal act is a good law and it will be preserved. But it has aberrations.
When an economic actor, a tourist is here, is here, of all times, and that there is a need to review its structures, to expand a little in the context of planning documents made under the act and, therefore, in respect of the said act, it must be one that can find the right accommodations. When there is an application to a water treatment plant or a water sports centre to be rehabilitated and that it is said : because of the coastal act, it will not be possible, it can not explain legitimately in the face of the young were opened to the sea and the taste of the sea, that we are going to encourage this taste by closing the water sports centre. It takes a little bit of pragmatism and common sense. I believe that your elected officials have and I think that the progress begun in the national Assembly will be continuing in the Senate to allow the processing of this matter.
And the other thing about that, I have to say, I discovered there a little over a year at your neighbors from the gulf of Morbihan, this famous topic of hollow teeth, which is a specialty not only in brittany but very breton, which again, is a bit of an aberration of the coastal act, which will be corrected by the text.
Without changing anything of its prospects, of its requirement, its balances, will enable us to better advance, better value and with pragmatism.
Speaking of the sea, it is, of course, also speak of the scientific research. And I say here without being comprehensive, as I intend to move our country further on this topic, but for sure, the sea will be one of the levers of French innovation and one of the new frontiers for our country in terms of food innovation, health, medical, and many things have already been started, we can go much further. And so, on the scientific topics, the fight against global warming, we must then also we initiate and accompany the developments of the Britain. This is the very meaning of the project of Campus in the world of the Sea, carried by Brest Metropole, which will provide our country a centre of excellence in the field. Beyond the transfer of Ifremer, it is through the creation of a pole of excellence on maritime, the structuring of a whole sector of industry, of tourism, with the success of Océanopolis, which demonstrates the potential attractiveness of the point-based, innovation with clusters, through the industrial development.
This ambition in terms of research, applied research and innovation by the sea on the coast will also be one of the essential perspectives of this development and of the sectors that we want to encourage. This spirit of conquest, this spirit ocean that I mentioned, that I recall in speaking of these channels, on which we make concrete commitments, it is not limited to the sea, it has declined through the last decades in the food processing, retailing, industry, with many jewels of our economy which are here developed. And I hope that we can continue in the same spirit by continuing to support the ability and willingness to innovate of the brittany region.
Brittany was able to take a turn strong digital momentum. She grabbed all the opportunities related to natural energy, digital, cyber security, with a centre of excellence in Brittany today, who is structured in Rennes, but also Lannion, Vannes and Brest, which is a pole now fully european, and whose perspective is global. And the cybersecurity French, european think, can be built on these sites. The FoodTech, e-health, smart cities with, for example, the project 3DExperienCity of the metropolis of Rennes, which models the urban development by closely involving industrial companies such as Dassault Systems, all of these projects are the illustration of the capacity for innovation and the ability to grasp precisely beyond projects French Tech or IRT innovation on the territory.
We will continue to support all of these projects and of these opportunities and to continue on all of these segments of the innovation that I just mentioned to accompany the clusters of excellence in Britain. There are, on each of these topics, an organization reticular to have on all the territory. On all of these topics of innovation, we have to develop the excellence of our territories, where there are skills or historical actors who were there or actors in industrial or research who have been able to emerge. This is the case for the sectors that I have just mentioned and that is what we will continue to accompany.
It is this same spirit of conquest that we find in creativity and culture in Britain. It will suffice for me to quote Carhaix, known now worldwide for its festival des Vieilles Charrues, Festival du Bout du Monde on the Crozon peninsula, Lorient and the Festival interceltique, Saint-Malo with his Route du Rock to express this dynamism is a wonder of culture in Britain. We’ll have all the time, with the Minister, the opportunity to discuss them with the whole of the officials of these festivals to understand their recipe to be able to apply on other territories, to also take concrete measures to help sustain everything they need to continue this success.
I do not ignore that the dynamism, when we speak of culture, is also rooted in a respect attentive to the legacy of breton and therefore to the languages of Brittany. I don’t think we’re yet at a time when the French language was threatened by the regional languages. I have had many times the opportunity to say that, on this subject also, I wanted to be pragmatic. These, these regional languages, now play their role in a rooting, which contributes to the strength of a region. This is why I hope that through the various education networks, we can accompany its right place. Whether public school, private school under contract, or schools Diwan, each of these networks must be accompanied by finding the right solutions can be institutional reforms or organization that will perpetuate these teachings and we will also present at the appointment.
But Britain, the geography of contrasts that some would extend to the estuary of the Loire, it is also… do Not applaud not…
// Applause //
I see the president of the regional Council extremely tense in the first rank. Be nice with him, make him the calm of daily life, and I believe that these topics are now outdated, in a cooperation between regions, which is exemplary, by projects, by the reality of daily life, for the pursuits of your fellow citizens. But seriously, you’d be a lot to remind myself that this territory, therefore, is not limited to its coastline, it is also a territory is agricultural land, which have sometimes suffered, made brave and courageous, who do not count their hours and where one product, one crop, one student, one transforms, one distributes.
Here there is a earth copy in matters of agriculture, agri-food, that I hope that we can continue to encourage. I know that nothing is easy, and we were talking about this yesterday with a few that we watch every year the course, as we all know, whether it’s in the price of pork, the price of milk, whether it’s a little more to the north of the price of the artichoke, or other vegetables, and we have known in recent years for all the crises. I’m not trying to tell you that if by magic, we are going to resolve all of these crises. The strawberry, the Mayor, in a less well-known these past years, but we are not immune to anything. But we need to build a real strategy of agricultural and agri-food in which the territory breton has its place to be taken, and I hope that it will be there and fully copy.
As of 2013, Britain has begun to initiate a transformation of agriculture in the Pact for the future of agriculture and agri-food in Britain. Commitments have been made and they will be required in this context, I would also like to say here clearly. And today, it is thanks to the region that these measures were able to be understood and acclaimed by the farmers. Then some of you would like us to do always more, but again, I’m not going to make promises, not from Breton but from Gascon in budgetary matters. On the other hand, I would like to try to explain what we want to do and what we can do together.
First, we have to prepare a common agricultural Policy that will be finalized in the coming months. What has been proposed by the european Commission today is unacceptable and therefore will not be accepted. This is unacceptable, because it is in any way want to say to all the peasants of Europe : the cost of the “Brexit” will be paid only by you. That is reduced in due proportion on the part of our british friends, the share of budgetary commitments for the various existing policies, it is normal. It reduces a lot more for no other reason, this is unacceptable. Then, I hope that we can make this agricultural Policy as an instrument of the transition.
And here, too, it is not necessary to speak : we want to keep the same Cap as that of yesterday. No ! So, is this all there is ? Not really ! We have collectively not always been good. The payment delays are not acceptable ! The intricacies that we have between the regions and the State are complicated and incomprehensible to our fellow citizens and our farmers ! And is it that we have accompanied the transformations ? Not totally ! Therefore we need to have a common agricultural Policy that keeps the same ambition in terms of investment and of budgetary commitments, but that accompanies the transformation of sectors towards future prospects as we are in the process of building.
And so I will be the defender of this ambition that is not merely the preservation of existing, and with a Cap coming which should help protect farmers against climate risks and markets and, therefore, to have mechanisms of guarantees, insurance tailored sector by sector, to support the transformation of supply chains and to support the transition to environmental. And I will be the advocate of a Cap where we will have clarified our organization between what is a matter of the State and of the regions. And I said, I am for my part ready to that the Government entrusts to the regions, aid for investment for the next Cap. This will be more clear and more effective.
But beyond the Cap, the policy that is ours, that is to say that what our farming needs, this is not necessarily and always and even primarily of grants. Our farmers, they want to be able to live worthily of the price paid. It is at the heart of the States-general of the food and of the act which, at this moment in time, made its way to the parliamentary and that will fundamentally change the structure of our agriculture and processing, first, with the construction of the price that will be profoundly different : the price paid will be based on the costs of production and therefore with the certainty that it does not sell at a loss, as is the case today. It is unacceptable to have classes – and this is still the case on the milk conventional – that are below the cost of production. The work that has been done by all the actors of the different sectors and parliamentarians that I want to salute here provides a major step forward with the rise of the threshold of resale at a loss, with the capacity assumed to take higher prices to allow all our farmers to live precisely because of the price paid.
To do this also, I asked the agricultural sectors to better organise themselves, that is to say also to review their collective organization to go towards quality, towards more know-how, to the circuit court here, the increase in range there, from organic to other places. If we make the mistakes of the past, we will have the same results. And as such, it is for this reason that the State has fully accompanied the strategy promoted by the region for Soft which is a project symbolic of the matter. France is not even to fight on market prices and standard volumes in the face of the chicken brazilian. This is the problem that we’ve had over the decades with Mild. This is a great company that has been a success in the region, a national success ! But the choice of industrial who, at one time, have been made lead us to depend on the course and currencies in the Near and Middle East, who become almost the only market outlet.
If we want to preserve this industry in the long term, we must mobilize to a true transformation that will ensure employment for the increase in range which is much more holder. We see by looking at our trade balance, we do not have today the agricultural production that corresponds to our food sovereignty, to our tastes, and the sub-sectors of the future. The bio is preferred in our country as in all the neighbouring economies. We have an agriculture that is copy, we import 1 billion of organic per year. And therefore, don’t explain to me that the conversion to organic, this is not possible or it is without future, that is wrong ! We must continue to engage it, not because it would be an idea sympathetic, no, because I was talking about the milk producers, the milk producer, which sells for 290 euros 1,000 litres when it is in the conventional non-value-added, it sells to well over 400 when it is in the bio and so he lives much better, it has lines ! That’s the reality of this conversion !
It is not limited simply to the bio, it’s limited to the ability to transform and enhance. Take a look at our meat sector. You always hear fears. We said : we will open the markets, we will be overwhelmed. But, my friends, wake up-we are ! Today we are in trade deficit on the processed meat to 6 billion euros. When you go to a restaurant, most of the time, we did not open the Mercosur, the Australia or any other market, it is imported meat. Us, we produce, we do the breeding, but it will export the broutards to make them fatten up in Italy. That’s the reality of our collective organization. We produce pork, but it exports products to almost no processed foods, carcasses of medium quality at very low prices, and it re-imports of processed meat, sometimes with our own meat original, employing also the cutting and processing. It is an aberration, and I would say also with the spirit of responsibility.
I say to all our farmers, all our transformers, to say that we are going to maintain the price, fight for it no more this price still lower, this strangulation organized by the great distribution which is unacceptable, it is not to keep our practices in the past, this is not to say : we are going to continue to do what you have always done. We must – and Britain also –deeply transform these sectors. I will be raising in July at the Elysee all the channels to just put on record their commitments to developments that they must wear. These developments are not to think of, to arrange in Paris, but they must be assumed to be everywhere on the territory.
We will have an instrument to accompany them, it is precisely the Large agricultural investment Plan for which the minister has appointed Olivier ALLAIN, who is familiar to many of you and who is familiar with not only these lands of brittany, but on this subject, and which will also be accompanied by subsidies, grants, guarantees, instruments and a variety of these transformations we need, whether it’s producers, whether it’s transformers, because, from the upstream to the downstream, we need to reorganize in depth, we need to reopen slaughterhouses in new generation with the best qualities and people will see that in these plants of new generation, we will reconcile production and animal well-being. We must continue to improve the tools of processing first and second meat, I think, in particular, pork, and chicken, as in the milk. And so it is on this subject especially to the sides of the region, the State will involve.
In total, a little more than 4 billion euros, which will be put on this Great agricultural investment Plan and who will accompany the transformations brought by the law which will be promulgated at the end of the summer. We must also invest in agricultural innovation to better connect research and business. The Pact for the Future has also allowed us to implement the projects, such as the Springboard Carnot AgriFood, which is a subject on which there was also a very large financial investment of the State. We need to rethink our way of producing to fully regain this sovereignty, food in France and in Europe. France, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the first agricultural power of Europe and it should be the leader of these great transformations. It is our ability to continue to produce at the same level, to ensure the food sovereignty of our great territories, but to think also of the legitimate demands of our societies and thus ensure our food sovereignty and quality of knowledge on these topics also exceed the divides of yesterday.
The divisions of yesterday, we have revised full play on the subject of glyphosate. I know how much you are attached to this topic, all of them, sometimes for reasons that are not the same, I can hear it. But the war of trenches on a subject like this would be irresponsible. Come tell me : “We don’t know all of the risks of glyphosate, we will continue to use “, it is to forget the scandals that we are in the process of living on other territories of the Republic : the chlordecone in the west Indies, you think that we can be proud of what we did, leaving the farm workers, the populations becoming intoxicated to continue to produce as we had always done ? You want us to replicate it with the glyphosate ? Me, no.
At the same time, we can’t say from one day to the next farmer who explains to us : “I can’t rearrange it like that, I use the Roundup – since it is necessary to name things by their name because that is the weed killer that they use. If you do this, I can no longer sell, I am no longer competitive. “I can’t say, tear apart the next day. Here, too, there must be a commitment of collective responsibility. France has first obtained what ? To change the european commitments. Without France, Europe was divided for 15 years. This is because France was where we were limited to a five year extension european. And then, with this in mind, I said : we must do everything to try to limit it to three years. So, yes, there are set-ups, places that, legitimately, we will say : “I can’t do it. “And we will, we will not put the people in the face of impasses, but there are many sectors who can and who, today, don’t try. And so we need to collectively put everyone on a path of responsibility so that they undertake that they invest – and we will accompany them – and that they arrive there.
Yesterday at Cap Fréhel, a farmer who knew neither the minister of State nor I even came to us, saying : “I am very competitive, I’ve never used the Roundup, I sell very well. And now, I value, I can sell a little more expensive because I have to explain to people that I don’t use it. “And so, on this subject, it is necessary that we come to train, to educate, to spread good practices and we’re going to build together a path of responsibility in the coming three years.
This, Ladies and Gentlemen, a few things that I wanted to bring you to accompany, encourage, you to succeed in these sectors of excellence brittany, and I am not without a doubt comprehensive, but otherwise we would spend all day together and on which, you have understood, the State will undertake, for the transformations, reforms and investment.
The second topic I wanted to talk about a commitment of the State, it is the one of solidarity needed in the territory. You are in a territory full of challenges, with two cities, Brest and Rennes, where many have told me during these two days : “Everything is concentrated there in order to succeed “, even if it is not so true here. A coastline that can be attractive, successful, land that is sometimes in more difficult situations and that it is necessary to help and, therefore, a cohesion of the territory, the breton that we need to ensure, improve, at the same time a cohesion of organization, of institutions, and then a cohesion that can only be improved if we provide also the connection of Britain with the rest of the French territory.
And in saying this in the terms chosen, it is almost the entire history of Britain I’m talking about, because there are in this peninsula, if endearing of the Republic all the memories of the land attached, of the arrangements between kingdoms and this obsession is legitimate to be still attached to, to be able to have access, not to be the isolated, the forgotten, and for that, I hear. I hear it because it is there and we have seen in recent decades, sometimes in recent years, the anger that could give rise to the fear of being forgotten, of being rejected, of being abandoned. And this challenge, this challenge breton, for me, this is almost a metaphor for the challenge the French because there is in these fears, these complex and, at the same time, the spirit of conquest that I mentioned a moment ago, the whole of France. We have everything to succeed, to seize everything that is offered to us : value chains strong, an ability to grasp the future. And because we are a territory a little particular, fears that this is no longer the same, that it splits, it breaks up, that the success of the few that has a little bit of forgetfulness of the other.
I have sometimes said, it may be that you will tell me again : I would be the President of the cities
These oppositions, they have never led to anything. But those who want to make it, as also those they often denounce, as extremes, they play on the fears because there is a fear of the French that goes with the French taste of the righteousness, which is a taste that you should never lose the salt, that is to say, it is always necessary to have both the strength and the character noticeable because it is sometimes a word that is not salait addition, this commitment to justice. He must know how to respond to this challenge, breton if you want to be able to respond to the challenge the French.
So, first of all, there are two cities. I’ll get to that on other subjects they are : Reindeer with an exemplary strategy in the areas of housing, mobility
But talk about the cities here, is to speak of success, of challenges, of an ability to succeed and to provide a number of courses which I mentioned a moment ago, but in a territory that is a little particular, where there are in spite of everything, balance is better preserved than elsewhere because the history of Brittany, it is also the balances of territories, of countries. I understood that in any case, it is not necessary to confuse the Bigouden and Cornwall. There are mistakes not to make and I was well guided on this subject. But beyond the joke, the balances of territories have led to structure – and we were talking about with the President of the county Council – policies closer to the territory which we would like, of political and social issues, and also with the structuring of medium-sized cities. Only 20% of Britons live in an urban centre of more than 100,000 inhabitants, 35 % in the rest of the country.
What does it mean ? It means that there is a connection, a way of life, a little particular that has managed to be preserved in Britain with a model of balanced territorial development, involving the growth of cities and the maintenance of activities in rural areas, with 54 small and medium cities that mailent precisely the territory. It is quite unheard of and for me, it is also a laboratory development because I don’t believe for a single second that they will build the France of tomorrow only with cities.
I think we will build the France of tomorrow by helping those who manage to succeed better because it is good for the middle classes and allowing the middle class to grow. And stop to tell them there stories, saying to them : “You will be better because we will block those who succeed, they will succeed less well. “Person in the middle class only wants the people who are to do less well, they want to be able to, themselves, succeed. In the same way, we will not explain to territories who are suffering or who are a little more difficult that it should block the cities in order that they are to be successful, it is fake ! More Brest, more Rennes will be strong, the more the rest of the territory will be taken, but in a dynamic balanced we need to build.
So this dynamic, this is the one we want to wear, with the cover precisely those medium-sized cities and the plan of action Heart of the city. This action plan is the Heart of the city, this is an investment of € 5 billion covered by the State, Action housing and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, which provides support to the elected officials who are in these medium-sized cities, that were our heads-places from guangzhou, our sub-prefectures, our rulers, sometimes of the department and who have suffered so much, who have sometimes suffered from the effect of metropolitan, sometimes suffered, it must be said, the policies of the State that was removed from the services and want to re-invest and who want to re-create both quality housing to attract people, who want to recover from the trade and reopen the centres of the cities.
We are here, in Quimper, a city which has been selected on this beautiful project and which, precisely, has the willingness to invest, to accompany, to transform, and it is for that that we will also be at the appointment, accompanying the elect in the same way as in Saint-Brieuc where we were yesterday because these cities have challenges : the renovation of accommodation urgent to re-establish the town centre and its attractiveness, think about the urbanity of tomorrow. And so these projects precisely the Heart of the city, for me they are absolutely the priority. 11 cities in your region have been selected and will allow the recapture business and real estate from their centre, and, therefore, housing projects, businesses, activities. And then also, I want to tell you, these are not projects on the defensive. On the contrary, we were talking about it, also to Morlaix with Madame Mayor, all of the time, these plans are offensive. Why ? Because our fellow citizens are getting back the taste of these medium-sized cities, our fellow citizens no longer want to go and do their shopping in the commercial areas on the outskirts, to go to work outside of the city. They don’t want to go back into town centres deserted as they no longer lighted at night, it is not true. And so this model that has been surreptitiously dragged in the 1980s and 1990s, which has been led by the logic that were perfectly legitimate development commercial and industrial strong, it has to be said also, in a consumer society that has had a logic, at one point, frantic, we can redevelop it because our fellow citizens wish to of these balances. And it is both good for the quality of life and for their competitiveness.
But to achieve this territorial cohesion and, therefore, beyond these projects, you also need to invest, invest in the transport infrastructure and all access. The access, transport and connection. When one is in a territory, wherever it may be – and this will be more true tomorrow than today, if you do not have the access, it does not have the ability to wear the same projects and live normally. The world of tomorrow will be companies that will develop, including in rural areas, because they will have access to the global market by connectivity, will be through the development of teleworking, which will also help to avoid the urban congestion in the larger cities and, therefore, by a transformation of the uses, of our collective organization. This is why the first condition when I speak of access, it is of course the access to the digital and high-speed.
On this point, you know my promises : broadband for all by 2020, high speed broadband for all by 2022. I took to the design of the commitments in the five year period to be able to account for them and the ministers have conducted late last year the negotiations with the operators for them to commit themselves by taking on the conditions of radio frequencies that are granted and to be granted – so we have a lever, but commit themselves to the deployment on the mobile. And so, on the mobile, we have the new levers that are waiting for you and we have dates that we will be able to render account. I know about these subjects all the scepticismes that are installed, but because for years, there have been commitments without the means to hold and without the involvement of operators. You look already what has been done during this last year in deployment of towers intermediaries. Gone are the days where one was going to explain, in a city, town or village : you are covered, it captures next to the church or the town hall. It is not true any more, it is no longer the way it is measured, and these investments are going to be built with this strategy.
Brittany took a very early mobilized to achieve this there also, and amendments to the law in the course of the discussion the so-called Elan have been adopted a few days ago to remove the last blockages and allow Mégalis Brittany accelerate the deployment of the fiber. They were expected, they were voted in first reading in the Assembly.
On this topic, we can and we must be the appointment of the accessibility to digital technology and high speed broadband. This is what our fellow citizens expect, it is a key to the accessibility, also the health, to services, to the accessibility to economic development.
On the transport, minor issue, when we talk of Britain [laughter], I had come to Rennes it’s been almost a year to inaugurate the high speed line Paris-Rennes, which has not only helped put the capital of brittany at 1h30 of Paris, but to guarantee a trip time heavily optimized for Quimper and Brest. When I came to Rennes, I said with a mind to claim that I claim : this is the last big project of this type that was opened. Why ? Because it’s part of this generation of projects that will lead to the end of their term, but these are the major projects for mobility and infrastructures that are very costly, on which one agrees and which one never sees the end, but that is not the priority today, and why ? Because our priority today, it is the mobility of everyday life.
And that is the lack of investment in the mobility of the everyday that is the main problem of the Bretagne, that is to say, the lack of effectiveness of existing systems, the lack of investment spent in infrastructure a priority and so this makes the reality of the daily outings. Go pledge to all the world its airport, motorway or train line, forgiveness, TGV, it is necessarily lying to someone – I believe that in recent decades you have to live – and this is not solve the problems legitimate that everyone needs to develop. The mobility of everyday life, is that, according to the place of the territory, we need to be close to the metropolis which is the heart of the development of its activity, the airport that allows international connections but that is perhaps not in the same city, but where there are for once the right investment, rail or road, which allows access to it. This is what allows to reduce the time to get to work or grow to its supplier or its customer. That’s the reality of the mobility of the daily life ! And so these are multiple solutions, it is more innovative and the answer is a little different.
Then what about the mobility and infrastructure occurs, as I know well, in a context in breton a little special, the end of the project of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. On this subject, we must also be honest, it was one of those great white elephants French promised majority after majority, without ever know how to do it. So you could continue to pledge Notre-Dame-des-Landes, there are many who have gone before us. And then I would have been able to continue to say to you : with me, it will, and not to do. So, is that you would have improved the daily lives ? I’m not sure. Why it was not done ? By our collective incapacity to decide, because this project has lasted too long, it has to be said, and because this project, which was relevant when it was thought at the beginning, because society has changed, because other plans are made around it, because the company’s aspirations have changed, it has to be said, no longer corresponded to the priorities of the moment, our environmental commitments, which had also been done elsewhere, in Nantes as in Rennes, and was no longer as relevant as it did 30 years ago.
The fault is not with the carriers of projects. Them, it has made them lose decades by inadequate procedures that we are in the process of change. The fault is collective but I think that the right decision – and I assume it was to stop the project. So, in this context, it is necessary to have an accessibility policy just for the territories as a whole, and this involves reviewing the accessibility of the regions pays de Loire and Brittany. That is why Madame the Minister of Transport has entrusted a mission to Francis ROL-TANGUY, which submitted its report in recent days with, again, a plan of action very concrete, clear proposals on which the trade-offs will be made. I wouldn’t be here on what is proposed on the region Country of the Loire, the Prime minister will have the opportunity to travel there soon. And without deflower all the details of what the minister will have to present, I would like to take here a few important commitments, concrete, tangible, to Britain.
Commitments to extent of territory and in scope of view for you all, that is to say, that I am committed to do in the time given me by our fellow citizens. To improve access to Britain, we will continue the development of the network of airports, mainly in Brest, where we will be at the rendez-vous of the investment required, in Rennes, where the State will allow the expansion of the airport by the transfer of land necessary.
We will also for Lorient and Quimper, the financial support of the air connection to Orly and, therefore, the support of equilibrium expected.
As regards the railway, the SNCF will improve the operation of the Rennes train station, it was greeted just now by our friends railway just prior to my expression, to make reliable connections between Paris and Brest. Then I know well, I, like you, I was explained that there were train cars that were to do Paris-Brest in a time of 3.17. Simply, when I asked how many there were and how often and that it was explained to me that there was one per week, it is true that he must be a fireball in the right day and at the right time.
So, rather than going to promise new lines or other, what we will do is we will make the investments to meet this commitment on schedule. It is the modernization of lines, it is an investment that we know, which is enshrined in contracts, they must be honored and it will be, and the SNCF will be accompanied with, in addition, a corporate executive today clarified that enables a good use of investment.
Finally, improvements of the railway in the south of Paris will be put into service in 2021 in order to avoid the delays experienced by the trains from Rennes and destination airports of paris. This will also increase the reliability of the line and reduce the delays and that, it is a commitment, it is funded and it has a date.
The State also confirms its commitment to improve the journeys in the heart of Brittany and the Great West. I of course think of the placed in service during the five year period of a number of sections to 2 x 2 lanes of the national road 164 in order to quickly link Rennes to Châteaulin.
In five years, there will be more than the section of Mûr-de-Bretagne to complete, as it was stipulated in the contract of plan State-region. I take here the commitment that by then, this last section will be funded and that the work will be undertaken in the framework of a plan of access road that the minister will shortly describe in detail.
Concretely improving the mobility of everyday life, it is also, as you have done, to renovate and modernize the line Brest-Quimper, which has recently been reopened and put into service in the five-year plan for new multimodal exchange hubs in Auray, Vannes, Quimper, which I confirms the financial commitment of the State to the sides of the communities.
It is finally delivering on the commitments that have been made in the contracts of State-region plan on the small lines that irrigate our lands everyday, I think, in particular, the binding Rennes-Chateaubriant and the connection Dol-Dinan-Lamballe. Here, too, the commitments will be honored.
On all these commitments, I take the dates, the amounts are known and the destinations and I will come back so on this subject before the end of my mandate in Britain to realize it, and I take here the democratic commitment in front of you.
I say this because if a lot of people wonder what to serve travel presidential, they are used to keep it on schedule. It is necessary to be humble in life, there is no miracle, but it turns out that when one takes commitments, and when we arrive at the appointment of the commitment, it forces everyone to take the time otherwise life resumes its rights, the everyday life makes you forget the speech and the risk of disintegrating. So the commitment is made, you will see me again and, as I will be forced to render account in front of you, everyone will have to work accordingly.
Concretely improving the mobility of everyday life, it is also providing the means to communities to assist people in the most precarious, in particular, job seekers are still too often assigned to residence. I know that some territories precursors are already committed, as the Country of Morlaix and its platform for mobility dedicated to those in search of employment, the community of communes of Ferns, which put in place a new transport service to the application, at low cost, or even that of the Country of Dinan. These projects will be encouraged, facilitated, and new tools you will be given in the framework of the orientation law of mobility that the minister will have to present because, on this subject, we need to be innovative.
We can not think only the mobility in terms of yesterday. These are not just infrastructure, mobility, solutions, that is to say, it is of multimodality and transport solutions ! Mobility is the ability to go from point a to point B, this is not the ability simply to take a train or a plane at such a time. And so, with the digital, with the reorganization of a collective whole just of the public authorities and actors of this sector, what are the mobility solutions that we are going to build. The region, with the platform KorriGo – and I congratulate him – has innovated and been driver.
And I hope that we can go further and move this agenda forward with all the encouragement for a higher mobility soft to which we are attached, that is to say, more electric, more multimodal, which allows optimizing the time of transportation, with the safety of its duration. And these are also very practical solutions that, by the act, we wish to make in supporting the initiatives, moreover, your entrepreneurs, the initiatives in your communities and in building all of the practical solutions. It will sometimes be the plane, the plane and the train, sometimes the coach also, the private car, carpooling, solutions involving taxis, the digital obviously to allow for the visibility, traceability of these services. It is this mobility, to which we will collectively and that we are going to fully accompany.
The State will continue to be present on all of these topics at your side and I would like to repeat here that we can approach this solution provided everyone in the field of mobility without incurring everywhere billions but with concrete commitments and solutions partnership.
To go even further, without departing from the priority given to the mobilities of everyday life, I also want to be clear on the objectives that we will hold in the long term and the prospects that we must also assign to ourselves.
In the longer term, I know at what point the objective of linking the tip of brittany in Rennes in 1h30 and Paris in three hours is important to all Britons. It is a goal that the State continues to share with you. I would like here to reiterate that, on this goal, we remain committed. The reliability of the trains cars to Brest in a time of 3.17 contributes to this, of course, and will be held in the timeframe that I just mentioned. To go even further, without departing from the priority given to these mobilities of everyday life, I announce to you today that the State undertakes to consider as a priority the extension of the new line between Rennes and Redon. Become muted, the existing line to the airport of Rennes, this extension fits perfectly with the priorities I have just mentioned.
By reducing the journey time by increasing the frequency of trains, it also contributes to this great objective together. And so I want to tell you here, there is commitments of short-term firm and there is a commitment on which we continue to be with you and on which we will go forward in good order in the years to come.
This is on the subject of connections, links with the territory that I wanted to tell you with much precision due to the fact that seeing the chronicle of commitments, I have also read trough the chronic disappointments. So I haven’t you all promised. I know that some of them may be wanted, or hoped for more but I believe it here to commit myself to what we can do and what it is just to do as compared to what we owe to the whole of the territories of the Republic.
But finally – and this is the third commitment that I wanted to take –, to make this transformation necessary to succeed with these dies, keep this solidarity and connection to the territory that I just mentioned, we need to adapt our organization to the collective, to adapt the organisation of the State in the territory and probably also a bit the relationship between the State and the territory. It is the purpose of the commitments I made during the national conference of the territories on the 17th of July last, in which I mentioned wanting to break with a centralised conception of the exercise of public responsibilities for the benefit of a shared implementation, concerted public policy.
There are three principles that guide my vision in the matter.
The first principle is that all territories do not have the same strengths and the same role in the economy of tomorrow and that our policies must adapt to these realities. It is a principle of pragmatism that should not take anything away from the unity of the Republic, but that we actually look at the diversity of the situations in this unit.
The second principle is to think about a new generation of decentralisation. There was a time essential in the early 1980’s where it was created the decentralization that has produced the situation we are in and many laws are given to supplement these major decisions. But in recent years, it has to be said, we lost a lot of time in debates abstruse to our fellow citizens about the decentralization of competencies. Debates, which have led to wars between the State and the communities. We always love to hate the services of each as long as one has not created the same services in others, you know. On this topic, I will be very agnostic, no one has the exclusive bureaucracies. But at the same time, created feuds between the levels of communities and the skills we had to give them. Is it that the school transport was expected to return to the region or to the department ? You see, it takes us collectively in a pit of reflection. We lost a lot of time, it has not set any location in and of itself and so, again, I don’t think there is a new stage of decentralization or recentralization, in any case to a theoretical debate. No ! The second principle is that of decentralization of projects. Our fellow citizens want solutions and projects, regardless of the subject. I believe in the organization that allows the most quickly and to the best of their answer. In some jurisdictions, it is necessary to do with the city or the community of communes, on the other, it is with the department
The third principle is that we need to invest in the territories not in a logical, defensive preservation, but in an objective, offensive, industrial processing, agricultural, social, to accompany the transitions. I do not believe that it should be, on this subject, kind of a coward, to be always in a spirit, or a speech on defense that I hear all too often when one says to me : “You do not know about the campaign. The campaign, it is necessary to protect and defend it. “But go and live in the countryside ! You see, people, they don’t ask to be grants and to be defended, they want to be able to live with dignity, normally, wear projects ! That’s the reality, they want a policy as offensive as it is elsewhere, a policy of projects !
So, in answer to this, it seems to me that Britain is a good laboratory. I would like to make Britain a laboratory of this decentralisation project. The Covenant of Future Britain, negotiated with you, dear Jean-Yves LE DRIAN, had already helped to initiate such a dynamic, with the first transformations are indispensable, and the State will go to the ambitions and commitments. The first work began with the prefect of the region, with the departments, the office of the Prime minister. The consultation continues after your discussion at the regional conference of the public action on the 14th of June last with the whole of the territorial authorities of brittany to lead to a Pact, a girondin, a Covenant breton, I should say, with all the local actors.
Then new perspectives will open up, hopefully, with the adoption of the constitutional amendment that I am calling will recognize in the Constitution section 72, that is to say a principle, article 72 again, which will anchor a principle of differentiation territorial, that is to say the possibility for a community to have skills or a different organization of communities of the same stratum.
This new article 72, it provides the institutional framework, the constitutionality of the three principles that I mentioned. It seems to me, in this respect, a bearer of this spirit of decentralisation contemporary. This is probably not a coincidence that the national Assembly has entrusted to my friend Richard FERRAND, one of your elected representatives the most eminent, the care of carry out that project of modernization of our public life. If the article 72 does not come to an end in the same conditions, you will return to him and his counterpart to come to the Senate may be also. But I have confidence in our parliamentarians.
More seriously, I have confidence in our parliamentarians, in their pragmatism. I believe that this reform is expected, it is important and it will help just a renovated setting. You have here already anticipated the positive vote of this review – and I thank you, in this of your confidence in entrusting Jean-Michel THE BAKER with a mission of reflection on the prospects of a differentiation in Britain. You are already preparing for the prospect of the new article 72, and the tracks are particularly interesting, I have to say, and illustrate, if need be, the relevance of the constitutional provision referred to. But already, I wanted to share with you some convictions about this Covenant that I want the signature before the winter.
I fully agree with your proposal, in conjunction with Mr. the Prefect of the region, the Brittany region a pilot region for the new role of the State in the territories. Most of the devolution, a State facilitator and a guarantor, a better articulation between the State and the communities, these are the principles that I have set for the reform of the territorial State. In this context, I share your proposal to co-ordinate actions of the State and the region on the territories around a single contract, on the basis of inter-communal groups, it is a good proposal. This proposal, following on from the successful experimentation of the contracts of rurality in your region, is completely in line with the vision held by the national Agency for territorial cohesion that I wanted to create.
I also think it necessary to continue the decentralization, or the delegation of powers to the region of Brittany in a few key areas for its development and its identity. I think of course in the first place at the maritime. You claim more coherence in the organization of the State to prevent the prefect of the region will need to discuss with the two prefects of the façade, three other presidents of the region, with three separate instances. I have to say that myself, to be able to decide, I’ve been struggling to understand the current situation. Also we will strengthen the role of the regional conference sea and coastline and I wish we had the side of the State shoreline management simplified and unified, which corresponds to the regional level.
I am also thinking of the economic challenges and the competitiveness of the region. Brittany has made many achievements, I was talking about, that this is in the agri-food sector, the marine with the pole of Brest and Compact State-cities, industry, and mobility with Rennes Automobiles, investment in the research with three competitiveness clusters. To accompany this dynamic, you have proposed a convention ambitious implementation of the investment Plan for the skills that will ensure improved training and suitable for all.
You also propose to experiment with a new way to support companies in their projects with a one-stop shop bringing together the current services of the State and the region, that is to say that one out of a debate on the sex of the angels whether he should put a little more on the side of the State or the region. No, what you are proposing, that is to say : we put them together, it makes them work better to meet better the needs of our businesses, our population, it is a counter common and will be managed behind what it takes to manage between the region and the State. Together to simplify it into a concrete project for the people. I’m ready and I hope that this experiment can be carried out quickly to be duplicated elsewhere in France, and that therefore we can, in the next few months, start this one-stop shop economic.
On the film and the book, it is the same proposal that we made and that we also want, with the minister of Culture, drive, have a one-stop shop, a single point of contact for all stakeholders, have the State and the region which are working hand in hand, but with the same people who speak, a simplification, for more ambitious projects. This is the kind of project I believe in, that this Covenant breton that I want to start with you today, and which promises new stages and a level of ambition that you have been able to wear.
To succeed in this Covenant breton, as I have said, the State will streamline its own organization, but we are also going to simplify everywhere on the territory of the Republic our collective organization. I will be in the next few months to detail it but I know that I am in a region here to be sensitive to this subject and who still lives, but it is always the case in France, like a little betrayal, a little death the closure of a public service, a public presence. It should also say a public presence. What has been done in many places – the recentralisations, closures, treasuries, Post offices, schools – has been carried out – I defend here my predecessors and the services of the State – with a lot of rigor in looking at the needs on the territory, the evolution of the demographics and it will somehow continue to lead. Schools, for example, when a country loses massive amounts of people and another wins a lot, he should be able to re-open classes on one side and maybe rearrange another because no one expects his children to be in a college where it remains 30 students. Therefore, it is necessary always to rearrange, close to structures, it should not be on this topic a demagogue.
However, I think that we have collectively followed a path that was maybe not quite right on one point : I think that the State can make substantial savings by pragmatism, as I have just said, by bringing services closer to having a decentralization of projects because it avoids duplicates, and I think we can do better sometimes also in approaching the instructional services at the region level, and sometimes between regions. But there is one thing that you need to keep, maybe even re-open on the territory, sometimes with few resources – one or two people – it is the public presence, it is presence. I think it is very important. It may be in some difficult neighborhoods, the delegates of the prefect. It could be a person who is in welcome to the sub-prefecture, or in a place that has been reviewed if the sub-prefecture has no justification as a place full and whole, but that there is in the common for someone who is the public service and that people will go to see.
Because I have heard and I have read, I have heard your elected officials, sometimes you own, we can see it clearly, what has been done in recent years with the modernization even of the prefectures, to more digital, so that the registration cards, driving licences are issued with these prefectures new generation, well, there are a lot of people who do not have access to digital, a lot of elders who have seen the public service disappear from the place where they were, and who do not go on the site. And this is not because they explain how to go click on the site, even if Quimper has experienced something special on this topic and has initiated in the past by some of my predecessors.
No, it is not simply by doing this that we will make the way. It is necessary to put the public presence and, therefore, it is necessary that the State should rethink its presence on the territory to accompany these Covenants girondins, to accompany in our country all those who are afraid of change and that we must also guide. The State has not more credits, not to know if there are more full-time equivalents or employees. These are always discussions that we have in France, we love it. Do you like this public policy, is that you have increased the credits, is that you have more servants ? No, otherwise people would be tremendously happy in this country in many of these policies, this is not true, no ! Is it that you’ve given the presence on the territory ? Is that your policy is consistent ? Is it because it has results, is it effective and is it that the people who need to be there at a given place there ? And so I want that you can also réhumaniser this public action collective.
This, Ladies and Gentlemen, the three commitments that I wanted to take with a lot of details, of details in front of you and I believe very deeply that by this decentralization project, this ambition on these industries of the future, which are also the sectors historical Brittany, this cohesion of the territory, at the same time that we give the right access to be successful, are the recipes for success breton, but, more broadly, the success of our Republic.
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But to conclude, I told you, I’m going to ask you one thing, go, maybe two.
The first thing is to take your hand in all these projects, it is to be – but I know you and this trip I reinforced this feeling, is to take your share of responsibility. Nothing of what I said will only work if farmers, fishers, elected officials, teachers, officials, territorial and national do not take their share of responsibility in this project. The only thing that can hold its own when it is the president of the Republic, it is money to date or things measurable that come from on high. The only thing that changes the life of a territory, of our citizens, it is a collective commitment focused and so this is the part you take. I ask you here solemnly this confluence of good will. I need it to be successful, we need to succeed.
And the second thing I wanted to ask you, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is to be faithful to your history, your passions, your passions, and it is nothing to assign, in these troubled times that we live in, your love for Europe. I say this with a lot of force and emotion because, on these lands, there is a little more than 25 years, we have, I believe, saved Europe. Without the Western French, the euro would not have existed, and sometimes, things are nothing. And here, this is one of those lands of the Republic where it vibrates in speaking of Europe, where we like to Europe and where we know that when we love the local, when in love, its fishing, its territory, its production, its scope, its Republic, we also love his Europe, and one the door and one defends it.
And I tell you with a lot of seriousness in the moment in which we live, many hate it but they hate it for a long time. But you see them go up like a leprosy throughout Europe, in countries where we thought that it was impossible to see it reappear, and friends, neighbors. They say the worst and we get used. They are the worst provocations and nobody will take offence of this ! Looking back on ourselves : you, you’re not enough this or that. We just accuse the Europeans of not being not enough or not quite the way we want and we forget to denounce those who do are any more, those who hate it and are setting up their projects. You get used to all the extremes in the country who, for years, are yet pro-europeans like us ! And on this topic, our economic elites, journalists, politicians have a huge responsibility, huge!!!!
Then I say to you, that each person should look at the reality of what is happening, both the challenges, economic challenges, humanitarian, human that we are, but without forgetting the challenges of daily life of our company ! Look, I say to all the donors of lessons, will explain to me that he would have to welcome everyone today ! But look at the French society and its fractures ! Look what we’re doing also and we don’t have to blush and I can defend it point by point and detail by detail in front of you ! But me, I want that France and the national cohesion take place, that our middle classes will find their place and, at the same time, be at the height of our tradition of hospitality and, in particular, to the asylum ! That is not to say everything and anything.
But to look the other way when others betray, even the asylum, are the worst provocations humanitarian, it is this against which we must fight and denounce, not in us dividing ourselves ! It is against this that you must be shocked, against the nationalism that is reborn, against the border closed that some suggest it ! Then I say to you today with, as you can see, a lot of ardor deep in the body, I have need of this land who believe in Europe, I need the French and French who believe in this project because they know our History, because they know the price of nationalism, because they know the cost of stupidity, because they know that we can see the fears in the face, try to deal with them in a way that is always more difficultueux, because no one is ever happy, but who is more responsible than the one who plays with the fears.
Then, my friends, this is a strong demand and it is vibrant but in the months, years to come, never forget with strength to be Europeans, not Europeans, blissful, non-Europeans as demanding as you are on any, European, Brittany, as you know, the being that will require a good common agricultural policy, which will require to be protected against the excesses of the work, detached from legitimate sources, which will ask to have protected territories as it should ! I believe, myself, in a Europe which protects, and that Europe ambition ! But let’s not forget our principles, our values, our History.
So, yes, to defend it, I will need you. We will have indignation, they will be fair. We will have some fighting to be done and we will and we will have to resist sometimes to the emotion, other times to hate speech because it is necessary to take a course. It is not here that I will remember the importance of keeping a cap. So, for this, I will also need you.
That, my friends, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what I was this morning came to tell you, these three strong commitments with and for Britain because we need them all and these two applications vibrant to take your part of this journey and always be there by my side, at our side to defend Europe in which we believe and in which, more than ever, we need. My friends, bevet Breizh ! Long live the Republic and vive la France !
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Please accept our apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure is not be perfect.