A municipal council, the first since January and the delays around the budget, took place on Wednesday. Narrative.
5 p.m., Wednesday evening, in Bouzigues. The elected officials enter the municipal council room one after the other. We hardly speak to each other. The mayor, Cédric Raja, is the last to enter this room without air conditioning, where the heat quickly becomes annoying. Two open doors will be used to create a draft. This will not prevent the temperature from rising crescendo during the debates.
This council meeting is only the second of the year. The last time was on January 29. These five months during which the budget had time to be rejected twice by Cédric Raja’s own majority. Some of his elected representatives turned against him. They blame him “his lack of consultation” et “his way of concentrating powers”when personal stories do not come up. A lunar situation.
“It’s terrible, between Bouzigauds, not to be able to talk to each other”
The prefect himself had to get involved, making the 2024 budget enforceable at the end of May, after the opinion of the Regional Audit Office. Wednesday was therefore the first day of the remainder of the mandate. And if democratic life was able to resume, internal wars resurfaced like lightning. An illustration when, in the preamble, it was necessary to designate the secretary of the meeting. Guillaume Ferrer, a former member of the Raja majority who had become a fierce opponent, proposed his candidacy against that suggested by the mayor. He was designated with 10 votes out of 19 elected members of the council. The scene was set.
In Bouzigues, for several months, the public has been getting value for money. On Wednesday, about thirty people made the trip. Not everyone found a chair to sit on. “It’s the schoolyard here, remarks Bouzigaud, aside. You’re at the theater!” “The problem is that they can’t get alongdeplores this other administrator attentive to the life of her commune. It’s terrible, between Bouzigauds, not to be able to talk to each other. But there are personal stories that come to spoil everything.” A situation that is all the more distressing given that some elected officials attended the same classes and the same schoolyards…
Wednesday’s council did not allow the hatchet to be buried. And that will probably never be possible. The elected representatives of the former majority remain stuck to democratic principles. “We want to be consulted before decisions, to discuss, to meet”vigorously defends Guillaume Ferrer, elected of the type not to give up, who refuses the idea of “sign anything and everything without thinking about it”.
“I regret that it has come to this. Common ground could have been found.”
And while the 2024 budget ultimately shows an overbalance of €1.2 million, Jean-Jacques Chastel, another “ex”, is not budging: “It is not acceptable to spend €1.3 million on personnel costs. This was a blocking point for us. But I regret that we have reached this point, that there has been no discussion since 29 January. Common ground could have been found…” Outcry among Cédric Raja’s supporters: “Why didn’t you tell the office that things weren’t going well?! You’ve been slowing down everything for 8 months!”
However, now everyone agrees on one point: “We must move forward. For the community. For the Bouzigauds.” Declarations of intent that may take time to materialize. Again on Wednesday, the deliberation involving the simple recruitment of a youth animation agent for July 2 had to be re-voted. The opponents having finally revised their position after 20 minutes of discussions of the deaf on the heresy of the situation. Irreconcilable…
