Mayors, deputies, municipal councilors, around 2,100 people are expected this Wednesday, December 4, at the 78th congress of mayors of Indre-et-Loirewhich is held at Vinci, in Tours. Elected officials who are increasingly carrying around their blues, according to a new survey commissioned by the department's association of mayors. Of the 272 Touraine city councilors, 148 responded to this questionnaire, similar to the very first one launched two years ago. Same questions. Same observation. But worse.
Today, 46% of Touraine elected officials say they have been victims of attacksphysical or verbal, since the start of their mandate. It is three points more than in 2022. Another notable fact is that more and more threats are being made on social networks. On the other hand, there is a constant. As there are two, more than half (62%) have not filed a complaint. “They believe that the judicial institution has abandoned themassures Cédric de Oliveira, president of the association of mayors of Indre-et-Loire. A number of our colleagues have taken matters to court and have not had the expected results. Namely a sanction, which would also allow a message to be sent.”
Only three mayors in ten say they want to run again in 2026
From this survey, it also emerges that the majority of mayors (54%) give a mixed assessment of their action, believing that they have not been able to carry out their promises in the face of the reduction in subsidies or the burden of standards. “We were weakened by the drop in overall operating allocations between 2014 and 2017, of the order of 11 billion euros, we took on the Covid-19 crisis, that of inflation, too, and there , we are asked for 5 billion euros in savings to be made, continues Cédric de Oliveira. There is frustration among a certain number of mayors at not being able to respond to local public services.”
The wind is rising against this 2025 budget, which is suspended from the vote on motions of censure, this Wednesday, the president of the mayors of Indre-et-Loire, asks the State to loosen the grip. “If the debt has increased in our country, it is because of the orientations of the State. And nothing else. This dissolution has had a price for our fellow citizens and, also, for local communities. We we are waiting for a certain number of reforms which do not see the light of day, in particular on the status of elected officials, to prepare for the next municipal elections. We are also waiting for structural reforms, on the fiscal level, to continue to support municipalities in their daily lives. . More than ever, national news worry.”
While mayors feel increasingly abandoned by the State (51%), the vocational crisis has never been so great. 30% want not to run again in 2026, and 40% are hesitant. In 2020, Cédric de Oliveira recalls that “four mayors out of ten” had already not sought a new mandate.
