Philippe Dupouy, president of the Gers Departmental Council, expresses his concerns about the 2025 Finance Bill (PLF), which he considers devastating for the future of the departments. Before the National Assembly rejected the revised text this Wednesday, November 13, the elected departmental representative had sounded the alarm in an article published in Le Monde alongside more than 80 other presidents of departmental councils. If the PLF 2025 must now be debated in the Senate, it calls on the government on the risks of this reform for local social and territorial justice.
Before the National Assembly rejected the revised text of the 2025 Finance Bill (PLF) this Wednesday, November 13, Philippe Dupouy, the president of the Departmental Council of Gers, joined a vast protest movement, supported by numerous elected department officials, to warn of what he considers to be an unprecedented threat to local public service missions. According to him, the PLF 2025 would compromise the model of territorial solidarity by weakening the financial capacities of the departments.
The president of Gers worried about the text of the PLF 2025
In a joint article published in Le Monde, the presidents of departmental councils throughout France warn against the 2025 draft budget, which they perceive as a real “peril”. Philippe Dupouy, on behalf of Gers, is concerned about the repercussions of this reform on social and territorial justice. According to him, the project endangers the role of departments as “social shock absorbers”, essential institutions for preserving the balance of territories and filling the gaps left by the State. The elected officials write: “The asphyxiation of the departments is looming with the 2025 draft budget. Faced with such a danger, we, presidents of departmental councils, of all political tendencies, solemnly ask that the government and Parliament take their responsibilities . »
For the Gers department, the PLF 2025 generates a shortfall estimated at 10.25 million euros. A budget reduction which, according to Philippe Dupouy, will force the community to take drastic and painful measures. “The future that the government is currently drawing is going to be terrible for our fellow citizens,” he declares, emphasizing that each financial decision will have a direct impact on the Gersoises. According to Dupouy, the government must “assume the consequences of these choices which will weigh on the daily lives of our fellow citizens”.
Furthermore, Philippe Dupouy warns that the department will have no other choice than to reduce certain services or abandon them to deal with this situation. “We now have painful choices before us. And it is up to the government, it is up to the national representation to assume them. »
