The regions have “a different position from the mayors and departments”, who refuse as a whole to be involved in reducing the deficit, assured the deputy president of Regions of France.
Renaud Muselier in Paris, July 24, 2024. (AFP / LUDOVIC MARIN)
While the government plans to ask communities for savings as part of the 2025 budget, the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regional council, Renaud Muselier (Renaissance), assured Wednesday October 9 that the regions will take, “as everyone”, their share of the budgetary efforts, “if they are fair and equitable”.
“We are aware of the difficulties.
Everyone must make efforts, if they are fair and equitable, the regions will do them.”
assured Renaud Muselier, also deputy president of Regions of France, during a press conference in Marseille.
According to him, the regions have “a different position from mayors and departments”: “all French people will be impacted. If the effort is collective,
I don’t see why we, in our institutions, cannot participate in it.
But not in a unilateral or brutal way!”, he said.
Concerning the Paca region, Renaud Muselier was optimistic about the continuation of major projects in progress in terms of transport, in particular the new Provence-Côte d’Azur line which should connect Marseille to Nice by 2030, and whose The first groundbreaking is expected at the beginning of 2025: “We passed the law, we federated the regional arc with Europe, it was validated, organized, structured. It would be difficult to get out of it!”
“Everything that has not been voted on risks falling”
Concerning the line project which should connect Marseille to Briançon in 3h30 by 2030, Renaud Muselier said he was “cautious” while being “reassured” by the prospect of the Winter Olympic Games in the Alps in 2030. “The people will pass through the New Provence-Côte d’Azur line and the Marseille-Briançon line”, estimated Renaud Muselier.
“We have committed very significant resources, the results exist,
we cannot push back the calendar
we have everything organized, we are ready!”, he stressed.
Renaud Muselier nevertheless estimated that given the expected budget cuts, “everything that has not been committed, voted on, risks falling”.
Tuesday, the PS president of Regions of France and the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, estimated that
“Regions cannot be the solution to an overly spending and inefficient State”
arguing that they “today account for 12% of public investment in all territories for only 1% of the national debt”.
