In the context of public disaffection towards representative democracies, political leaders are increasinglyestablishing citizens’ assemblies to foster participatory governance. These deliberative fora composed of randomlyselected citizens have attracted much scholarly attention regarding their theoretical foundations and internalfunctioning. Nevertheless, we lack research that scrutinizes the reasons why political leaders create such newinstitutions. This article fills this gap by analysing a specific case: the first permanent randomly selected citizens’assembly that will work in collaboration with a parliament in the long-term (Ostbelgien, Belgium). This case isanalysed through a framework that pays close attention to the context in which it developed, the profiles of politicalelites that supported its creation, as well as the multiple objectives it was vested with. The findings reveal thatinitiators of citizens’ assemblies fundamentally conceive them as a way to strengthen a polity’s identity, to savethe electoral model of democracy, and to restore the legitimacy of traditional political leaders. Our analysis of thisparticular conception lead us to argue for the need of developing context-sentive approaches to participatory anddeliberative procedures, as well as to discuss whether we should consider the latter as mere elites’ legitimation tools.