Jean-Didier Berger will pass on his scarf as mayor of Clamart

Pour Jean-Didier Berger, who today holds the mandates of mayor of Clamart, vice-president of the Regional Council, president of the Vallée Sud – Grand Paris territory and deputy of the XII^e Hauts-de-Seine constituency (since last July), the time to choose has come. On December 12, the Constitutional Council rejected the appeal requesting the cancellation of the early legislative elections in this same constituency. Appeal which, pending the decision of the “Wise Men”, allowed the elected official to display the title of deputy mayor theoretically abolished by the law on the non-cumulation of mandates and to retain all his local executive mandates.

Contested ballot

Filed by a voter in the constituency, this appeal pointed to alleged irregularities in Jean-Didier Berger’s campaign: electoral displays outside the reserved locations and not respecting the legal dimensions or the distribution during the campaign of leaflets in favor of the candidacy of Jean-Didier Berger “ likely to have altered the sincerity of the vote “. Jean-Didier Berger who was also accused of having benefited from resources from the municipality of Clamart to promote his candidacy. In this case, a public meeting on a neighborhood development project organized by the municipality on June 11, the participation of Jean-Didier Berger in school fairs at the end of the school year and the editorial that he signed in the issue of the municipal newspaper for the months of June, July and August. So many grievances dismissed by the Constitutional Council which considered them unjustified or not sufficiently substantiated. As for possible irregularities in the candidate’s campaign account, the Constitutional Council recalls that it was approved by the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing on October 28.

What local mandate?

It now remains to be seen which mandates Jean-Didier Berger will part with. He has until January 11 to decide. For the record, the law prohibits elected officials from combining mandates as deputy and senator with a local executive function: mayor, deputy mayor, vice-president of a regional or departmental council or of a public establishment of intermunicipal cooperation with its own taxation. And if they can also be municipal, departmental or regional councillor, deputies and senators cannot exercise more than one local mandate in parallel with their parliamentary function. If the municipality is guaranteed to have a new mayor (at the latest in January), Jean-Didier Berger will therefore have to decide whether he wishes to continue to sit at the town hall or in the Region as a municipal councilor or regional councilor. He who, like the new Prime Minister François Bayrou at the start of the week, defends the return of the accumulation of mandates.