Paris, April 15, 2019 (AFP)
Faced with the biggest crisis of his presidency France's Emmanuel Macron on January 15 launched two months of public consultations to give citizens a forum to vent after weeks of often violent anti-government protests.
After a shaky start -- the chief organiser had to step down due to an outcry over her salary -- the "Great National Debate" ramped up into one of the biggest voter listening exercises in recent French history.
Following is a summary of the debate, using the figures given by the organisers:
- 506,000 -
The number of people who gave the state feedback on the official granddebat.fr website, where citizens were given a say on four themes: taxation and public spending, democracy and citizenship, the functioning of government and public services and the environment.
Around 70 percent of the nearly two million contributions received were in the form of answers to questions such as: "In order to reduce taxes and reduce the debt, which public expenditure must be reduced as a matter of priority?"
The remaining 30 percent were spontaneous suggestions.
Le Monde newspaper has questioned the official figures, saying its count showed that some 255,000 people had fully answered one or more questions.
- 10,134 -
The number of meetings held in community halls across the country, attended by nearly 500,000 people, an average of 45 per meeting.
Many town halls set out "books of grievances" in which residents were invited to give feedback for the government -- a tradition launched by King Louis XVI just before the French Revolution.
- 629,220 -
The number of pages of typed or hand-written contributions which were parsed by a team of 40 state organisers and 150 consultants, by hand or mainly using computer software.
- 92 -
The number of hours spent by Macron debating with local officials and citizens at 16 marathon sessions across the country, beginning in the northern village of Grand-Bourgtheroulde on January 15 and ending in Corsica on April 4 (three weeks later than initially planned).
- 5-
The number of independent auditors appointed to ensure the process remained free of government interference.

Sumber : AFP