Elected officials from Seine-et-Marne demonstrate in front of the Melun prefecture against the reduction in the departmental council's budget provided for in the government's finance bill, November 5, 2024 (AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF)
Several dozen elected officials from Seine-et-Marne demonstrated on Tuesday in Melun in front of the prefecture against the reduction in the budget of the departmental council provided for in the government's finance bill, currently under debate in the National Assembly.
In tricolor scarves, several dozen departmental councilors, mayors and senators from all political stripes gathered under a banner proclaiming “Our departments in danger! Your daily life sacrificed!” in front of the complex of historic buildings hosting the prefecture and the departmental council, at the call of the latter's LR president, Jean-François Parigi.
According to him, the Barnier government's finance bill would result in a reduction of 70 million euros in the 2025 budget of the largest Ile-de-France department, out of an overall budget of 1.6 billion.
“I have a very strong desire, which is that on our compulsory skills, colleges, roads and the world of solidarity, we maintain the effort that has been made. But I would not want to sacrifice culture either and sport, because it is also the attractiveness of the department,” Mr. Parigi told the press.
Elected officials from Seine-et-Marne demonstrate in front of the Melun prefecture against the reduction in the departmental council's budget provided for in the government's finance bill, November 5, 2024 (AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF)
Although from the same party as Prime Minister LR Michel Barnier, the elected official highlighted the tense relations between local authorities and the State to justify this unusual demonstration. “I can still see when we go too far,” he said.
A whole series of speakers took to the podium to defend the action and presence of the departmental council on the scale of life in this largely rural area of the greater Paris suburbs.
Kadir Mebarek, the Horizons mayor of the city-prefecture of Melun, was concerned about the future of a future high-capacity T-Zen bus line or the construction of a fifth middle school on the territory of the municipality, both funded by the department.
Elected officials from Seine-et-Marne demonstrate in front of the Melun prefecture against the reduction in the departmental council's budget provided for in the government's finance bill, November 5, 2024 (AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF)
Other actors from the economic or agricultural world have highlighted the job creations generated by public markets or the “common sense” partnerships established by the department due to its proximity to the life of the territory of 1.4 million inhabitants, in full demographic growth.
“I wonder if things would not be even more serious and if the little background music that we have been hearing for a long time now would not amount, 70 million after 70 million, to the suppression of a territorial level,” he said. thundered François Deysson, president of the rural mayors of Seine-et-Marne.
