© Romain Perrocheau/Getty Images
– Mayor and Prime Minister, what do the texts say?
One foot in Matignon, one foot at Pau town hall? François Bayrou, newly appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron, has also been mayor of Pau for more than 10 years. A local mandate, which he intends to keep, in addition to his title of head of government. Indeed, the former Minister of Education went to the South-West city on Monday, December 16 to chair the last municipal council of the year. A decision which did not please the President of the National Assembly. Yaël Braun-Pivet has in fact expressed to Franceinfo this Tuesday that she would have “preferred that the Prime Minister take the plane to Mamoudzou [capitale de Mayotte]»devastated by the cyclone, rather than going to Pau.
A combination of responsibilities which therefore raises questions. The main person concerned defended the importance of the accumulation of mandates during this Pau municipal council on December 16. “We made a mistake in [rendant] incompatible local and national responsibilities, it is an error (…) For members of the government, it is authorized, for parliamentarians, no. I think this debate needs to be resumed», he developed on the spot, reports LCP. The Prime Minister even intends to suggest “to future members of (his) government to keep their mandates and (…) to others [d’avoir] a small antenna on the ground.” A decision criticized by the Pau opposition. “Our city needs a mayor present every day and involved in issues», Launched the leader of the opposition in the city of Pau, Jérôme Marbot, reports L’Express.
Bayrou and housing: what should we expect?
So, can a Prime Minister be mayor?
We must first refer to the Constitution. Paragraph 1 of Article 23 provides that “the functions of member of the Government are incompatible with the exercise of any parliamentary mandate, any professional representation function of a national nature and any public employment or any professional activity”. Clearly, the Constitution prohibits ministers from holding a parliamentary mandate. Organic law no. 2014-125 of February 14, 2014 also regulates this accumulation of electoral mandates for parliamentarians, prohibiting in particular local executive functions.
For ministers, it is government practice which governs the accumulation of mandates. In 1997, Lionel Jospin, then Prime Minister, asked his government to renounce their local mandates. In November 2012, the Commission for the Renovation and Ethics of Public Life, known as the “Jospin Commission”, also recommended prohibiting the combination of a ministerial function with any local mandate, executive or not.
Fill the deficits? With his Pau-Orly airline, François Bayrou is not taking the route!
Government practice has often restricted the accumulation of local mandate and minister. In 1997, Lionel Jospin, then Prime Minister, demanded that his ministers give up their local mandates. More recently, Jean-Marc Ayrault, Jean Castex and Edouard Philippe all put their role as mayor on hold during their time in Matignon. François Bayrou is therefore, for the moment, in the same line as Jacques Chirac, who remained mayor of Paris while being head of government between 1986 and 1988.
Will François Bayrou have several “salaries”?
The mayor of Pau, whose remuneration is fixed, according to an index and the number of inhabitantswon, according to an article in Liberation, 4,694.51 euros gross per month (since 2020) mayoral compensation. Remuneration that he will put aside during his appointment as Prime Minister. Indeed, during the Pau municipal council on December 16, RMC reports that François Bayrou announced that he would abandon his mayoral allowance as long as he was Prime Minister of which the remuneration exceeds 16,000 euros in compensation.
The politician is also “High Commissioner for Planning, President of the Democratic Movement (MoDem), President of the European Democratic Party and President of the Pau Béarn-Pyrénées urban community» reports BFMTV. In 2022, Liberation reported that among these functions, only that of president of the Pau Béarn-Pyrénées agglomeration community was paid, to the tune of 3,072.63 euros gross per month. It remains to be seen whether it will continue to perform all these functions with the stack of files that they expect it at Matignon in 2025.
