Junoir Conseil General

[Patf]

I was interested to read about this junior section of the departmental council of the Gers 32 being elected and choosing their President, ayoung female college student.  She said in her address " Ensemble, on peut changer le Gers si on s'accroche. On veut s'exprimer aussi, pas seulement vous" - aimed at the seniors. They are to have a budget of 30.000 euro and deal with solidarite (?) culture, sport, education and citzenship. This seems an excellent idea, especially as many young people seem to be leaving the Gers for the big cities. Does this exist in all departments ? Pat

[Loiseau]

Yes, it has done in the Vendee for quite a long time - perhaps about 6 or 8 years.  And I think some communes have a "conseil municipal des jeunes", too - so a similar thing at very local level.  It seems an excellent idea to give children a sense of how democracy works.

The son of some English friends of mine was elected by his class (14 year-olds, I seem to recall) to represent his school on the département's first-ever "conseil général des jeunes". At the first meeting of the full council, made up of representatives from other Vendee schools, he was elected its president.

The following year, with a new intake of 14 year-olds, the girl who was elected president was half British!

I haven't followed it too much in recent years, so I can't tell you if this trend has continued!  However, it made me wonder whether Brits can think more "out of the box" than French, and this is why they get voted into the presidency...

EDIT
Just found the report on election of the current president of the CGJ
http://www.vendee.fr/Actualites/art_show.asp?art_id=771

Angela

http://www.the-vendee.co.uk

[Patf]

So it seems that learning about how local government is run is part of the school curriculum. I wonder if French people, children and adults, are more interested in politics than British children. I believe there's a very low turnout of young voters in the UK. Pat.

[Pantouflard]

I don't know much about it but there seem to be similar things in UK run by County and District Councils.  Part of the drive to get the young to become involved in the democratic process.