428 public petitions were submitted between July 2021 and July 2022, compared to 300 in the two years prior.
231 of the 428 petitions that were submitted over the past year were declared valid. Ten petitions crossed the threshold of 4,500 signatures and triggered a public debate in the Chamber of Deputies. In the previous year, there were only seven debates.
The Chamber of Deputies recently requested a legal opinion to determine whether residents should be required to provide their social security number before signing a petition. MP Nancy Arendt from the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) is opposed to this idea, stating that she is “happy” to see that petitions are becoming increasingly popular. Arendt pointed out that even if demands are sometimes not directly implemented or do not result in tangible actions, the general ideas underlying the petitions frequently impact future policy.
The most popular petition topic was healthcare, followed by mobility, work, and family. Arendt added that petitions often focus on people’s personal finances but fall into different categories depending on the issue.
