Noé Chaillot / Photo credits: MI / DICOM / J.GROISARD
2:00 p.m., October 20, 2024
The 2025 finance bill, which targets 5 billion euros, is widely supported by the Departments. Some, like Haute-Marne, do not currently have such resources at all. Faced with this, its Departmental Council opts for a solution that is both radical and original: sell real estate and not on just any platform.
The 2025 finance bill provides for a significant budgetary effort for the regions, departments and municipalities, which will necessarily be called upon to contribute. An effort worth… 5 billion euros. And, in these conditions, Haute-Marne is looking for financial resources and opts for a solution that is both radical and original: selling real estate; and not on just any platform.
“The survival of the departments is at stake”
All French departments must pay 2.2 billion euros to the State to find the necessary funds. In Haute-Marne, the Republican president of the department, Nicolas Lacroix, announces the upcoming sale of several buildings of his institution.
“Sell the prefecture, sell the sub-prefectures, sell the courthouse, the judicial tribunal. I wanted to explain that the survival of the departments was at stake and that we could also all look at how to have new recipes and how to try to get by in any case in the face of announcements which are untenable”, he explains.
A “necessary” shock announcement
He wants to sell this real estate to reach the 50 million euros requested by the State. They will be on sale on “leboncoin”. A shocking but necessary announcement for Nicolas Lacroix. “It’s to send a message, it’s really symbolic. To say leboncoin means that we’re selling off our heritage, since we have more than that, it’s really an alert being sent to the government. In addition, I really want them to succeed. We absolutely have to be able to discuss,” explains the president of Haute-Marne.
The Departmental Council wants to provoke a reaction to the 2025 finance bill. Its objective is to lower government cuts by at least 10 to 20% at Christmas.
