From Cambodia to the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad: A New Way of Representing the French in Asia-Pacific

Elected within a few weeks as councillor for French citizens in Cambodia, then as a member of the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad, Matthias Vazquez champions an approach built on collective action, civic dialogue and grassroots engagement. After a particularly intense first month in office, he looks back at the method behind his election, his first actions and trips, and his vision for representing the French community in Cambodia and, more broadly, across Asia-Pacific.

Matthias Vazquez

You have just been elected to the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad and have returned from a first series of trips across Asia. How do you look back on these first few weeks?

They were particularly intense. My election to the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad, like my mandate as councillor for French citizens in Cambodia, is first and foremost a mark of trust, and I am fully aware of the responsibility that comes with it.

I had the honour of leading an independent, cross-party list at the Asia-Pacific level, bringing together elected officials from different backgrounds around a shared way of working: dialogue, collective effort and complementarity. I very quickly wanted to meet with several colleagues across the region, because you can only truly represent such a vast region by going out to meet the people who live there.

In Hong Kong, I attended the vote count at the consulate before speaking with Émilie Tran-Sautedé, a long-standing local elected representative, about the shared challenges facing our constituency. Then in Beijing, together with Françoise Onillon, elected to the AFE alongside me, we immediately set to work on a first concrete case: helping an elderly person who wished to return to France find suitable accommodation. This situation illustrates a growing concern: the ageing of our community abroad, a topic also raised during our first consular council meeting.

These trips confirmed a simple conviction of mine: a mandate cannot be reduced to meetings or texts. It is exercised, first and foremost, through contact with people. Behind every case are life stories, sometimes situations of real vulnerability. It is this human dimension that gives my commitment its full meaning.

In just a few weeks, you became councillor for French citizens in Cambodia and then a member of the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad. Does this particularly fast trajectory surprise you?

What strikes me most about this sequence of events is the trust placed in our team and in an approach we built over several months. Nothing was written in advance, and that is probably what makes it all the more valuable. Of course, the pace was particularly fast, but it is also the result of groundwork carried out with the Relais des Français du Cambodge.

From the outset, we wanted to build a different approach. We brought together an independent team with complementary profiles, renewed and rooted in the French and Franco-Khmer community. We did not start by writing a programme. We started by listening and asking questions. This citizen consultation brought concrete priorities to light, which then became the foundation of our project.

I believe this method struck a chord, both here and at the regional level. Many of our fellow citizens were hoping for a more open, more collective and more transparent way of carrying out the representation of French citizens in Cambodia. What we proposed was a renewal of practices more than a simple renewal of faces.

My experience within French, European and international institutions taught me that public policy only has value if it responds to concrete needs. It is this requirement that now guides my commitment: to remain true to this method and turn the trust placed in us into results that are useful to our fellow citizens.

Concretely, what does this election change for French citizens in Cambodia?

This election strengthens, above all, our ability to defend the concerns of French citizens in Cambodia at the national level. The consular council remains the local level, where day-to-day matters are handled. The Assembly of French Citizens Abroad, for its part, allows these realities to be brought before the Government, Parliament and central administrations.

In concrete terms, the difficulties faced by our fellow citizens can be relayed more directly, while also being put into perspective alongside those of other Asia-Pacific countries. Early discussions with my colleagues also show that we often share the same concerns: access to consular services, social protection, French-language education, support for the most vulnerable, and the development of our communities.

This dual responsibility is an opportunity. It allows us not only to better defend the concerns of French citizens in Cambodia, but also to draw inspiration from solutions implemented elsewhere when useful. It is this exchange of experience that can help improve our responses, for everyone's benefit.

After this particularly intense first month, what will your priorities be for the coming months?

Since my election, we have supported many people and already resolved several cases, whether related to administrative procedures, social or family situations, civic projects, or exchanges with the minister responsible for French citizens abroad and the holding of the first consular council meeting.

I also wanted to meet with the people who make our community what it is: businesses such as MC&Co Prévention, institutions such as the Institut Pasteur, committed associations such as Pour un Sourire d'Enfant, as well as French citizens based in Siem Reap and Battambang. These exchanges are essential to understanding realities on the ground and informing our work.

The coming months will be marked by several important milestones, notably the senatorial elections in September, the first session of the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad in October, and the Francophonie Summit in November.

Beyond this calendar, my priority remains the same: to stay available, to follow cases seriously, and to ensure that every French citizen who reaches out to us finds someone to talk to and the right answers. Our commitment was to bring citizens closer to our institutions. My role now is to bring their realities into those institutions.