As the mayor of Bordeaux did last week, the PS president of the Gironde Departmental Council, Jean-Luc Gleyze, will hang a banner protesting against the budget cuts imposed by the government on local authorities in the preparation of the budget for 2025.
Cuts estimated at 5 billion euros at the national level, which will have an impact of more than 80 million euros on the finances of the Departmental Council. Two messages “Department and its asphyxiated partners, you are concerned…” and “Girondines, Girondins, let’s mobilize!” » will be displayed large on the Gironde building of the Departmental Council, in the Mériadeck district, from this weekend. The elected official calls for a mobilization on December 14, at the headquarters of the Department, presented as act two of the “Let’s defend our territories” operation, launched in December 2023.
“A chainsaw effect”
This Monday, November 18, the departmental councilors voted on a decision to modify the draft budget, which records a drop of 31.1 million euros in VAT revenue and an increase in additional needs in the social field, due to the increase in populations in difficulty (children entrusted to social assistance, people with disabilities, personalized autonomy allowance). Fall in revenue, increase in spending, “it’s no longer a scissors effect, it’s a chainsaw effect!” » quips President Gleyze.
“This anger is that of all the Departments of France, whatever the political labels”
A saving of 12 million euros on operating expenses and a reduction of 4.7 million euros on investments have already been recorded. This is how two colleges in the Bordeaux metropolitan area are falling by the wayside. One in Mérignac, in the Beutre district, the other in the south of the city, which did not yet have a precise location. Provided for in the college plan voted in 2017 (construction or renovation of 25 colleges in the department), these two establishments will therefore not see the light of day. Departmental roads are also affected by the economy program: they will only be resurfaced every twenty-three years, instead of every eighteen years.
Breillat “very worried about our institutions”
Finally, the president of the Department is relaunching an initiative from his predecessor, Philippe Madrelle, who had displayed a counter of the money owed by the State to the community due to missions entrusted without financial compensation. The new counter in the community hall already shows more than 253.6 million euros.
This budgetary pressure imposed by the Barnier government is also denounced by the right and center opposition. “This anger is that of all the Departments of France, whatever the political labels,” declares LR Jacques Breillat, leader of the political group Gironde Avenir. The count is not there, we are in the process of suffocating the Department. We have increasingly constrained expenses, which we cannot control, and we see our revenues collapse. I am very worried about our institutions. This way the State makes direct cuts without differentiating anything is unbearable. »
