The man behind this petition divides his life between Moselle and Luxembourg and holds dual nationality. Philippe Mouraux Klein, a jurist and linguist at the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Grand Duchy, was also a candidate in the 2017 legislative elections for Moselle’s fourth constituency.
He is known as a staunch defender of local law and regional languages. In his petition, he invokes Article 72 of the Constitution to advocate special status for Moselle. He argues that Moselle’s integration into the Grand Est region in 2015 was "imposed without consultation of the populations concerned" and "corresponds neither to the historical realities, nor the cultural identities, nor the economic and institutional interests of the Moselle territory."
Philippe Mouraux Klein further argues that "Moselle has its own identity, a specific local law inherited from its history, and territorial challenges that require strong and coherent local governance, which, today, is diluted within a regional entity that is too vast and too heterogeneous to respond effectively to the needs of its inhabitants."
He is therefore calling for Moselle to leave the Grand Est region and for the creation of a Territorial Collectivity of Moselle. According to him, a single collectivity could save the department "between 25 and 55 million euros per year in the long run". His objective is to establish a "single collectivity that brings together the competences of the department and the region" in order to avoid the typically French phenomenon of administrative layering.
In his view, substantial savings could be achieved because, under such a territorial reform,"there would be fewer staff, fewer elected officials and therefore fewer allowances". He also believes that "a territorial reform in France is more than desirable and calls for greater federalism". Philippe Mouraux Klein proposes replacing the Grand Est region with four collectivities: Alsace, Champagne-Ardennes, Moselle and Lorraine, the latter grouping together the three remaining Lorraine departments of Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Vosges.
Following Alsace’s aspirations to leave the Grand Est region, the collective "Initiative citoyenne pour l’avenir de la Moselle" filed the petition on 5 May on the National Assembly website. So far, however, the petition has failed to gain significant public traction. At the time of writing, it had gathered barely 380 signatures – well short of the 100,000 required by the National Assembly.
At the beginning of April, the National Assembly adopted a revised version of proposed legislation aimed at removing Alsace from the Grand Est region, although the future of the bill remains uncertain. Presented by the Macronist group Ensemble pour la République, ten years after the regional mergers introduced under François Hollande, the proposal was adopted by 131 votes to 100. Following the vote, the leader of the Macronist group, Gabriel Attal, welcomed what he described in a statement co-signed by several deputies as a "first step" toward responding to "a strong aspiration of the Alsatians".
He also called on the government to place the text on the Senate’s agenda. Regional presidents, however, criticised the adoption of the law, describing it in a statement as suffering from "serious shortcomings" after what they called "sloppy, chaotic and confused debates in plenary session". They urged an end to "institutional tinkering, a source of political divisions". The issue of a single Alsatian collectivity has long been debated. In 2013, a referendum on its creation failed due to insufficient turnout and the victory of the "no" vote in Haut-Rhin.
