A first morning marked by a ceremony at Mont-Valérien, in Suresnes, in the presence of elected officials from the department. Then a second in front of the Hauts-de-Seine prefecture, in Nanterre. Alexandre Brugère, appointed prefect of the department on October 31 at the Council of Ministers, officially took office this Monday. In a department that he knows well since the former chief of staff of Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior until last July, was also deputy mayor of Asnières and even head of the list in the 2020 municipal elections in the same city.
An “atypical career path” recognizes the new prefect, who wants to make this experience in a community an asset “to understand the problems”, particularly in terms of security, one of his priorities. He mentions in particular the “Beauvau of municipal police”, interrupted by the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9 and which must resume on November 21 as part of the Congress of Mayors.
“The 92 is the department which saw the birth of the first municipal police forces (in Île-de-France, in this case in Levallois, editor's note) and can therefore today be a land of experimentation”, estimates Alexandre Brugère, who will set out over the coming weeks to meet the 36 mayors of the region, starting with that of Nanterre, Raphaël Adam, from this Tuesday.
Another essential subject according to him: the future of the La Défense business district, which he can contemplate on a daily basis from his office located on the 24th floor of the prefecture. “The challenges of change are numerous due to the obsolescence of certain towers and new uses, resulting in an increase in vacancy,” emphasizes Alexandre Brugère. The Prime Minister asked the prefect for experimental measures to find new opportunities and I follow in the footsteps of my predecessor and the president of the departmental council on this subject. » He does not exclude, for example, the possibility of transforming offices into housing and has already organized a first meeting, this Monday afternoon, with Georges Siffredi, the president of the departmental council.
Among the files left on his desk by Laurent Hottiaux, there is also the upcoming construction site of the historic prefecture building, which has just celebrated its 50th anniversary and which will begin its transformation, for several hundred million euros, without so that we know the exact amount for the moment. “It is not just a renovation to reduce the energy bill but a collective project for which the teams must be involved,” underlines the prefect.
The project includes a new building for public reception, the complete renovation of the 113 m tower with the relocation, probably to La Défense, of the 1,900 agents who currently work at the administrative center and who will be joined by a thousand additional agents at the end of the work.
