France's citizen climate assembly: A failed experiment? Emmanuel Macron's experiment in participatory democracy is under fire after more than half of the proposals from citizens were dropped from the French climate law. A diverse group of 150 French citizens were given a crash course in climate science, quizzed experts and debated policy Amandine Roggeman was vacationing in Greece in August 2019 when she got an SMS saying she had been picked to take part in a convention on the climate for French citizens. Would she, the message asked, be interested? The 27-year-old, who works in the cultural sector in Paris, had only vaguely heard about France's upcoming experiment in direct democracy.