The prefect of Aveyron Charles Giusti, appointed on October 31 as prefect of Eure which he will join in mid-November, looks back on his two years of presence in the department.
When will you take up your new position and how do you approach this change of territory?
I will take office on November 18, which is the rule since generally taking office takes place on the third Monday after the appointment by the Council of Ministers. It is therefore for me a brief and dense transition period during which I endeavor to deal with what I consider to be priority files.
I am also starting to work on the situation in the Eure department, which I know little about. It is a department whose population is approximately double that of Aveyron. There is both an urbanized and industrial side to the Seine valley and also a department with a rural aspect.
I will find there subjects that I had the opportunity to deal with in Aveyron, such as agriculture, security, territorial planning… I approach this assignment with a lot of openness, as I have approached the one in Aveyron. I didn't know the department either and I learned to discover it and appreciate it.
How do you feel about Aveyron today?
I say very regularly that Aveyron is “the little paradise”.
The Aveyronnais are very welcoming, proud of their territory and of sharing it, they have values, welcome, solidarity, work. It is a department that is very peaceful in terms of relations, with Aveyron residents who are inherently constructive. There is a climate that I find extremely positive with this desire to find solutions in consultation.
And then it is a department with multiple assets, cultural, heritage, gastronomic… There is a very strong identity in Aveyron, with nuances, differences, but we find this same state of mind.
What issues have impacted you over the last two years?
Two years is a long time and it's short. We have been able to carry out a certain number of projects but it is never long enough to bring them all to fruition. There are perhaps two main points on which I particularly wanted to act.
First, renewable energies. The department has a lot of them, it has potential for these energies, but this sparked a lot of debate. I launched a workshop in March 2023 for a major consultation with elected officials, economic players, with associations…
This was broken down into working groups, which are currently finalizing their discussions. They worked on the acceptability of projects, a sort of guide to good practices for developing renewable energy projects. I said from the start that the question of renewable energies is not “and” we have to go, but “comment”.
The effects of climate change require us to take measures and become very proactive in alternative energy production.
And the other theme that struck you?
The other aspect that struck me was the fight against forest fires. I arrived after the major fires of 2022. I tried to work with specialized structures and with citizen actors around this issue.
There is a lot of long-term work that will take several years. And then very operational actions to strengthen the system in terms of detection, public awareness, and control. The 2023 and 2024 seasons were very calm but I think we should not be under any illusions for the future, from the point of view of forest fires, Aveyron will become more and more linked to the Mediterranean departments.
We worked on many other subjects. My main objective was to be a facilitator, partner, local State which is very present with elected officials and actors on the ground so that all of this is directly useful to the people of Aveyron.
What will you take with you to your next role?
I also wanted to support businesses as much as possible, encourage the discovery of professions by bringing together the world of education and the economy, we launched the experiment of a one-stop shop for businesses…
A certain number of initiatives which try to find positive avenues to support activity and projects. With this word, this state of mind that I tried to adopt and which is essential for me in the action that I carried out with the State services: I blame him. Common sense, how we move forward in good intelligence.
It is truly a term that I will take with me and which will continue to accompany my action. In a simple word, this is a good summary of how to act. I have two compasses, the general interest and the good management of public funds, but in addition there is common sense. I loved Aveyron deeply, I will come back. Having traveled a lot, I can say that we are really good here.
