Interview with Jean-Philippe Grange, President of the Australian Embassy

“I support Yan Sandral’s march for the next Senate election.”

What do you conclude from these diplomatic elections?

These elections, which were postponed for a year, took place under very specific conditions associated with the Govt 19 epidemic. Overall, if you look at the statistics and our friends who have been re-elected or re-elected around the world, the ecology has been strengthened since the first left and the last diplomatic elections. These would have allowed many colleagues to re-elect, but significant improvements, for example, in Asia-Oceania, Thailand or Korea / Taiwan. Volumes of experienced teams around Japan, New Zealand, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Vanuatu (among other things!) Around humanitarian, progressive and environmental values ​​have won the trust of many of our comrades.

List of Union, Citizens and Solidarity in our constituency! With Caroline Brunel in Sydney and Philip Lesage in Melbourne, I allowed the newly elected officers and consular delegates to be on my side. All of these results are the result of field service in the service of our comrades living outside France.

Through their votes, I think the French people living abroad have shown social justice, ecology, solidarity and a genuine desire to put an end to the continued dismissal of the state. As well as the social and financial recessions that affect a large number of French people living abroad.

Following the vote last May, you were elected Chairman of the Embassy …

In fact, the new advisers of the French people living abroad in our constituency met for the first time on June 29 and unanimously elected me head of the embassy, ​​which is now run by an elected official. Beyond our different sensitivities, we start with good excitement, I hope.

In accordance with our campaign obligations, we will act in accordance with the common good between the selected colleagues and the management. There is a lot of work! We plan to discuss a full series of themes soon, and will not miss the French community on this subject. We are also thinking about our comrades who are currently suffering from the prisons of Sydney and Victoria and we are listening to them.

As you often recall during the campaign, elected embassy officials are also the key voters in the context of the senator elections, especially those called to express themselves by their votes every three years from the end of September this year. How are you approaching this election?

This is really an important aspect of our democratic representation system. In one of the 11 constituencies on the planet where all French people living abroad are elected – during the legislative elections – their deputy, only their diplomatic elected representatives form the College of “Great Voters” who selects the 12 senators representing the French outside France.

By exchanging all around me, especially with elected officials from the Asia-Oceania region and other continents, the desire to unite left-wing forces and the environment – this desire I felt with some at the center of our approach in Australia – dominates our electorate. It seems natural to me to continue this dynamic within the framework of the Senate elections. The attitude around the assembled candidates, who have lived in their constituencies for many years, are affiliated with the domain, and are strong in local experiences, is exactly what should be presented for these Senatorial elections!

I notice that the health, economic and social crisis we have been experiencing for a year and a half with the COVID-19 epidemic shows it daily: the situation is not calm, our comrades are surprised, often uncertain. Elected officials, especially the Senate, must face the difficulties of the Govt environment themselves and be aware of the realities so that they can act immediately in the service of our fellow citizens. . We were reminded by some of our voters of this need to have people in the field during the diplomatic campaign.

Precisely, what do you conclude from this in confronting the many aspirations of the candidate?

The newly elected officers are sure to be in great demand in the coming weeks. But we need clarity and peace. A few weeks ago, my colleague and friend Ian Chandrel, who was re-elected in the Montreal constituency, announced that he would begin a joint process that he would lead in the run-up to the Senate elections.

I know the elephant very well. In recent years, we have taken joint action with a number of elected officials – especially within the French delegation of the world, ecology and unity in the French legislature abroad – to protect our comrades against the setbacks voted by the current government. , Taxation, access to health or education. It is only natural that we should unite to continue these fights during the Senate elections.

I am particularly aware of two aspects of his approach, which are all reasons for my support: first, there is the desire to reach out and exchange with other parties and movements of the left at the center of his project. An actual union list. Every member of the team he formed, of which I am a member, is committed to working towards solidarity with all of our left-wing partners and European ecological Greens.

Since then, he has been around himself with experienced candidates, well-established and from the field. As I said before, it all starts from there: it is necessary to know the things that concern our comrades in social, health, economic, educational or cultural matters, to enjoy and serve them. Beyond that, even though the Senate election is reserved for the college with the largest electorate, we want to engage in dialogue with all of our citizens so that the functions of this House of Commons should be familiar to the general public.

In addition, I have always admired Yan Chandralin fighting within the framework of his mandate. He continues to defend advances in terms of rights, education, health, visas, employment and taxation. He is aware of the issues after using his mandate for 7 years and the need to have strong contacts in the Senate must be heard and protected at the highest level.

What are the main axes of the program in this list?

We are going to build with all partners and elected officials a participatory project that reflects the range of issues facing the French people living outside France, proposing approaches to solutions. This program we will defend daily in Parliament and against the government.

Exploring a few questions, we would like to continue the wars we have already been able to lead in recent years. We saw that our rights as French people living abroad were fragile and were being brutally questioned.

We therefore show ourselves as “defenders,” especially in diplomatic public services, education and culture, but above all, as the force of the proposal to seize new rights and social progress for the French people abroad, as seen in recent years in the sociology of this population with the evolutions we have. We have plans to take into account environmental challenges and to extend some decision-making powers to embassies, allowing local elected representatives of the French population living abroad to be truly partners in important decisions in their fellow service. Citizens.

We will also discuss national policy issues, knowing that this order does not involve protecting the interests of the French people abroad.

Finally, the ecology, which was hitherto weak in themes concerning the French people living abroad, will be subject to program points. In the spirit of this union list, we hope to be able to work with EELV.

These plans didn’t come out of nowhere. They are the result of mobilization in recent years, but also during diplomatic elections and recent comments from the field facing the challenges and very specific issues of our comrades. Voting for those who have experienced them is a guarantee that they will be protected!