According to the CEO of the La Poste group, Philippe Wahl, the decision has already been made: out of 174 million euros per year (which could go up to 177), the fund which ensures the presence of postal services in rural areas or working-class neighborhoods cities must fall by 50 million euros, starting this year.
The news, announced on the sidelines of the congress of rural mayors in Saint-Julien (Côte-d’Or), had the effect of a bomb among elected officials, often questioned by their constituents about the drop in the level of public services in countryside or peri-urban areas.
“This means that we will suddenly erase from the landscape 10,000 retail relay points and municipal postal agencies because we will no longer be able to pay them, it’s a huge cataclysm,” says Xavier Cadoret, mayor of Saint -Gérand-le Puy in Allier.
The elected official, also vice-president of the National Observatory of Postal Presence (ONPP), called on Friday the new Minister of Rural Affairs Françoise Gatel, who came to meet rural mayors.
Post offices, financed by La Poste, are not affected, unlike municipal postal agencies – created precisely to compensate for the disappearance of a post office – and merchant relay points.
“The postal presence is an essential driver of the life of our villages. The notion of service will move further away from our rural territories,” regrets Gilles Noël, mayor of Varzy (Nièvre).
The 2010 postal law born from the opening to competition of the sector obliges La Poste to maintain at least 17,000 “contact points” (post offices, municipal and intermunicipal agencies, commercial postal relays, France Services, etc.) under of its public service mission of land use planning.
“We’re hitting rock bottom”
The objective is to allow at least 90% of residents to access essential postal services (mail, registered mail, small cash withdrawals or deposits) within five kilometers and twenty minutes by car from their home.
This public service mission, necessarily loss-making, is estimated at 348 million euros and compensated by a State equalization fund within the framework of a “territorial postal presence” contract signed between the State, La Poste and the Association of Mayors of France (AMF).
“In practice, these 174 million are never paid and we were already missing between 15 and 30 million euros, but here we are hitting rock bottom,” Eric Verlhac, general director of the AMF, responded to AFP.
In addition to the operation of postal services, the equalization fund finances the staff of municipal postal agencies, who receive 1,200 euros per month, as well as all necessary work, outside post offices.
“More broadly, it is territorial equality and the social role of postal agencies that is threatened. This is particularly true in Overseas Territories, but also for retirees in rural areas or in neighborhoods classified as ‘urban policy’ “, observes Eric Verlhac, recalling that during the Covid crisis, the sudden closure of post offices sparked a public outcry.
If La Poste’s mail activity only represented 16% of its revenue in 2023, forcing the group to downsize, its presence nevertheless remains crucial to support residents in their administrative procedures, where public services have already been reduced to nothing.
This is particularly true for digital support. “In my department of Allier, this represents 75,000 euros per year,” underlines Xavier Cadoret.
“The residents need a human presence. In my village of 332 inhabitants, I still have a postwoman, it’s really a symbol to which rural people are very attached”, testifies Jean-Paul Carteret, mayor of Lavoncourt ( Haute-Saône), who also pleads for “the maintenance of distributors since private banks have moved away from us”.
If the cut is confirmed for 2024, elected officials fear an identical amputation in 2025. Which, in the opinion of the CEO of La Poste, could lead to an interruption of service.
