Faced with the budget cuts that are looming in municipalities and communities, The Marseillaise published a text on Wednesday, November 27, calling on mayors and local elected officials to debate and take action. Objective: to highlight the concrete consequences that austerity would have on the lives of residents and, above all, to outline alternative perspectives. Since then, its response has grown and the first community to take up the call is the Hérault departmental council which opens its doors this Friday, December 6 at 10 a.m. Around fifty local elected officials have announced their participation. The Department, this real “social shield” is threatened by austerity logic. « We must fight against this logic to preserve solidarity and equality, cardinal values of the Republic » explains the president of the community, Kléber Mesquida (PS) in an interview with The Marseillaise (read opposite).
For mayors of rural communities even if « these cuts target larger communities more, when the Department or the Region are affected, these are also projects that they do not help to finance in small communities »explains Sylvain André (PCF), mayor of Cendras and president of the association of rural mayors of Gard (read page 6).
He was one of the first to react to the censorship of the Barnier government, which intended to take between 5 and 10 billion euros from communities. « I am not happy with the political and institutional situation in our country. However, the government pays for its illegitimacy from the start, then the proposal of an unacceptable austerity budget which would be harmful for our fellow citizens, for our public services or even for our local authorities. It also pays for the non-compliance of the people who want the unfair pension reform to be repealed ! The President of the Republic must respect the choice of ballot boxes and appoint a 1is left-wing minister, then we must build a majority of projects and compromises anchored on progressive measures to improve the lives of our fellow citizens. »
If the planned massive cuts are suspended for the moment but in no way canceled, mayors must construct their budgets in total uncertainty. « Today, we make combat budgets, that is to say we integrate the worst »explains the mayor of Pégairolles-de-l'Escalette, Frédéric Roig (PS) who also chairs the association of mayors of Hérault. He participates in the debate proposed by The Marseillaise where he should emphasize a specific issue: « We must preserve envelopes that allow local investment to be maintained. That's the issue. » (read page 6).
At the regional level, Carole Delga (PS) welcomes an approach « which allows us to combine forces and defend this local Republic to which I am so attached » (read page 7). The president of the Occitanie Region estimated the State's disengagement at 47 million euros to which would be added an additional 140 million as part of the national effort on the debt. Intolerable.
Territorial agents are also up in arms. Mobilized on December 5 (read page 12), they denounce a disintegration of public services. Yvan Garcia, head of CGT Territorials 34 and member of the higher council of the territorial civil service points « the disengagement of the State which means that at the end of the chain, our communities, obliged to present a balanced budget, can no longer function ». (Lire page 8). L’alternative urge !
