This Tuesday, at the end of the morning Gérard Trémège, mayor of Tarbes, accompanied by Roger Vincent Calatayud, deputy mayor in charge of Culture, spoke to the press in order to send several messages to the people of Tarbes.
Regarding the most important message, the mayor explains: “ The organization of greetings to the population was planned for January 7, as was done before COVID at the exhibition center where several thousand people were welcomed. Faced with the disaster that occurred in Mayotte, I decided with Roger Vincent Calatayud who was the project manager, not to organize this wish ceremony and that instead the expenses generated by this ceremony of the The order of €10,000 will be allocated by an exceptional donation to our compatriots in Mayotte.
I don’t see myself celebrating joyfully with music while a few thousand kilometers away our compatriots are in absolute poverty, no more food, no more home. The gesture we are making by canceling the mayor’s wishes and devoting this budget to the people of Mahor, I hope it is an example that will be followed by many.
I consider it scandalous that over the years and regardless of successive governments, this territory has been left abandoned, more than 100,000 people live in slums and of course everything was swept away by the cyclone. . We bear responsibility for what is happening, we must understand that we are in solidarity with what is happening in our territories and when we have compatriots who are suffering, we must do everything we can to support and help them. “. The mayor specified that he would contact the president of the general council of Mayotte directly to remit this donation.
And to continue: “ We live in a particularly difficult context where everything is falling apart, we have the impression of attending a show and even before the curtain rises everything collapses and is torn apart. I have never experienced such a climate, a climate of suspicion, a climate of hatred, whereas on the contrary we must stick together and do everything we can to ensure that reason is found. It is imperative today to put egos aside and highlight and put forward the interests of France and the French. I am very unhappy to see that we cannot leave the hatred behind us and say now we are going to serve our compatriots. I hope that we will quickly be able to find ways and means to ensure that peace is regained ».
Gérard Trémège then expressed his satisfaction as well as that of a very large number of Tarbes residents regarding the Christmas events, the Christmas market, the events at Place de Verdun, the parade last Friday, the ice rink where everything was a huge success, the same goes for the decoration and illuminations which were very well received.
He took the opportunity to thank the town hall services who contributed as well as “Tellement Tarbes” and the merchants who are associated with this holiday period.
Nicole Lafourcade
