At the call of the association of rural mayors, around fifty municipalities in Gard (south-east of France), including Cendras, 1,600 inhabitants, closed their doors from Tuesday to Thursday, during the congress of mayors of France gathered in Paris. Their goal? Loudly proclaim their opposition to the savings of five billion euros that the government is demanding from them for the 2025 budget in order to reduce the public deficit. “The reception of the public will therefore not be ensured during the duration of the operation. Your elected officials are mobilizing to defend your municipality,” specifies the message on the answering machine of these localities.
Anger. “The idea of blaming us for the debt makes me angry. In our town halls, our budgets are balanced. We are like a household, we don’t spend what we don’t have,” explains the mayor of Cendras and president of the association of rural mayors of Gard, Sylvain André, to AFP. “Our resources have already been reduced, the cost of energy has cost us dearly,” he continues. “Moreover, the regions and departments will also lose allocations. All this added up, we can't take it anymore,” says the councilor.
An exasperation shared in the South-East by the mayor of France's second city, Marseille. “I am very worried about what the government is proposing to us in its finance bill. If it is applied I will simply explain to you what will happen in my city. For Marseille, the first year, in 2025, it is less 50 million euros,” Benoît Payan declared on France Inter on Wednesday. “It’s the entire salary of my municipal police officers, it’s the entirety of my school canteen every lunchtime and it’s a school next year” that we couldn’t renovate, he said. he added.
“We do not want to cut these expenses, but it gives an idea of the impact of what the government is asking,” the town hall told AFP, specifying that the city has 550 municipal police officers and serves 55,000 meals. per day to the children of Marseille. And Mr. Payan says he stands in solidarity with rural mayors. His colleague from Cendras warns: “All these measures fall during a period of reflection for mayors whether to leave in 2026 or not. There is nothing better to discourage us.”
© Agence France-Presse
