French PM under fire over devolution

Raffarin is accused of being "obsessed" with devolution

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is to defend a bill proposing a radical overhaul of France's local power structures before the National Assembly later on Wednesday.

The project, which Mr Raffarin has declared a top priority for his government, has already been approved in the French Senate.

If devolution adds a layer to the millefeuille, it's no. I do not really understand what the government is trying to do. It is a wild imagining by politicians

Mayor Andre Niel

Amid growing controversy surrounding the project, Mr Raffarin failed to put in an appearance for the bill's first outing at the assembly on Tuesday because of a clash of engagements.

Mr Raffarin was in fact presenting the main lines of the project to a congress of French mayors and was unable to address members of parliament to promote his project, Liberation newspaper reports.

Mr Raffarin is proposing to transfer areas of responsibility from national to local level and let local authorities "experiment" over a period of five years to come up with new ideas for local government.

Local authorities would also be able to hold referendums at local level and increase the consultation of people over decisions affecting their daily lives.

Although President Jacques Chirac is officially backing the project, he said at a cabinet meeting last month that the reform "will take some time to bear any fruit as it does not speak directly to the French people".

Political observers said this was a warning to Mr Raffarin to focus on more pressing matters.

'Fundamentalism'

Although the idea of devolution in French politics is nothing new, Mr Raffarin's project is causing growing debate.

It led one critic in parliament to call it an obsession and of accusing Mr Raffarin of "decentralising fundamentalism".

The content of the project is not yet known in detail. Some mayors have expressed scepticism as to its usefulness.

"If devolution adds a layer to the millefeuille, it's no. I do not really understand what the government is trying to do. It is a wild imagining by politicians," said one mayor belonging to Mr Raffarin's party.

Other critics are worried the project will soon be a threat to France's Republican structures, ushering in "backdoor devolution" in sensitive areas like Corsica.

But Mr Raffarin was keen to point out at Tuesday's mayors' congress that "decentralisation does not put the state in question, as a guarantor of equity and the values of the Republic", but the state needs "renewed focus, to be less dispersed".