France's parliament – the National Assembly – on Tuesday voted unanimously on a resolution calling for the publication of the public complaints log books that were compiled in response to the "Yellow Vest" protests in 2018-2019.
The proposal, initiated by Marie Pochon, a Green Party MP for Drôme, was adopted unanimously by French politicians on Tuesday.
The process of public grievance registers started informally six years ago during the Yellow Vests protest movement (Gilets jaunes).
In the fall of 2018, men and women wearing yellow safety vests gathered on the roundabouts across France, first to denounce a fuel tax, then more broadly over the difficulties of making ends meet and the actions of political leaders.
They began to note down their complaints in mostly handwritten logs under the name "cahier de doléances" in reference to complaints compiled during the French revolution.
Inspired by the idea, French President Emmanuel Macron launched a broad citizen consultation – known as the Great National Debate – between 15 January and 15 March 15, 2019.
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The unprecedented democratic process resulted in the collection of over "19,000 citizens' notebooks," a "national treasure," according to Pochon.
The documents, contain "anger, hopes, life stories, concerns and proposals from our fellow citizens" she said.
Redistribution of wealth, tax justice
At the time, the government paid €2.5 million to private companies to photocopy and scan the thousands of registers which were then analysed based on keywords.
Many of the complaints focused on purchasing power, social inequalities, democracy and even taxation.
Romain Benoit-Lévy, a doctoral student in history at Rennes 2 University told Franceinfo that the running of the country was also a concern.
"Tax justice, wealth redistribution, and the resources allocated to public services are the most common topics," he says of the notebooks he saw from the Somme region, which he studied with a group of researchers.
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Researcher Magali Della Sudda, looking at documents in the Bordeaux area that thousands reiterated the theme of poverty and concerns over social security. Others wrote they were angry "votes blancs" or empty ballots, were not counted in elections.
However, the files are languishing in archive centres or municipal offices across France, and while the public was technically allowed to consult some of them at the centres, only a handful of people have done so.
Tuesday's resolution calls on the government to "make these grievances public on an online platform open to all."
MPs want the state to finalise and finance "the digitization of each book of grievances" and also "their anonymization."
Under existing law, these archives cannot be made public until fifty years after their deposit in order to protect the contributors' privacy.
New technology needed
The Minister for Relations with Parliament, Patrick Mignola, told MPs that the government was committed to seeking "new technical solutions" and an exemption would be made to facilitate access for researchers.
He notably mentioned "tests" to treat already digitised content using artificial intelligence, and promised to involve a committee made up of parliamentarians, local elected officials and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) in its management.
Prime Minister François Bayrou called for the publication of the document in his address to MPs in January as his precdecessor Michel Barnier.
While the resolution gained cross-party support, there were a number of reactions from the opposition.
Far-right National Rally MP Edwige Diaz said the resolution was "ironically co-signed by all those responsible for the Yellow Vest crisis" and that the measures since 2018 show continue to show disdain for those who bear the brunt.
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For far-right France Unbowed party (LFI) MP Arnaud Le Gall, said the publication of the notebooks would be "a step in the fight" to rehabilitate "the dignity" of the yellow vests leaders "who have been widely defamed and whose main slogans have been obscured."
Pochon said she hoped the government would "engage in constructive and transparent work" and recommended that MPs "remain vigilant and mobilised until this resolution is fully implemented."
The last time such a step was taken was in 1903, the year when "Jean Jaurès initiated a research and publication of the grievances of the French Revolution, and presented it to the National Assembly," according to Pochon.
"Today, we will have the opportunity to do so in less than a century."
