This Thursday in the municipal council, the LB-PTB-Ecolo majority will present its declaration of municipal policy. There is no question of the latter causing concern among the population. “Our job is to ensure that the people of Montois do not differentiate between the Oxygen plan as planned yesterday and as voted for today”announces Maxime Pourtois (LB), finance alderman. “The population did not ask to tighten their belts, so they do not have to suffer the impact of government measures.”
Although changes will still have to be made to meet Walloon requirements, the majority of Nicolas Martin does not intend to stop investing. “We fully retain our capacity to act in favor of the population”, he insists, explaining that certain investments are already budgetarily committed and that others will be maintained via the intervention of the private sector or paracommunal structures, in particular. We also learned that the city should be able to count on intervention from the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) to cover its investment budget.
In Mons, the municipal college denounces the measures imposed “without consultation” by the Walloon government: “they will worsen the situation”
“The parties which constitute the majority have been cautious from the first negotiations by studying the financing of each project presented. With or without agreement from the CRAC, with all due respect to the Region, the majority of our commitments can be kept. We feel the government’s desire to stifle us, to dictate our policy to us, but we can affirm it today: this mandate will not be empty or paralyzed, it will be a mandate of realization.”
And to add: “We knew that we would not have a Walloon government that would be favorable to us. We did not wait to have confirmation of this before getting to work and taking certain measures.” Today, the city is not in cessation of payments, the college still insists. “The city has no operating debt but an investment debt, like a household repaying the loan taken out to purchase a house or a car.adds Maxime Pourtois.
“Salaries are paid, our missions and services provided, and all of this is not threatened by the guidelines imposed by the CRAC. Line by line, we will study the agreement which was transmitted to us to see how to reduce our expenses and increase our revenues but in reality, a series of measures were already in application. The one that we continue to strongly contest is the end of appointments because it will cost us extremely dear and therefore penalize us.” A meeting with the CRAC is also planned for this Friday.
If the majority is reassuring, this Tuesday, there is no question of saying that everything is fine. Particularly internally, it will be necessary to continue the work with fewer personnel, fewer financial means, fewer resources. In short, do “as much” as before while remaining within a framework whose limits have been drastically reduced.