Every Saturday, Lot news seen by Philippe Mellet and especially by his cats.
Monday._ Mayotte. This weekend, a cyclone of incredible violence swept through and ravaged the 101st French department. The images are stunning. Words fail. In this chaos, the populations most affected are obviously those who lived in the slums – that is unfortunately the appropriate term. Several days have passed, and at the end of this week, no one can yet give a precise assessment of the number of victims. We will have to rebuild everything. And not just housing. Not just infrastructure. It will also be necessary that after emergency relief, a new way of life, and therefore a new way of connecting the metropolis to Mayotte, be implemented. While like many, I would be unable to instantly locate Mayotte on a world map, I almost want to make this reflection from an expert my own: “Compared to this, rebuilding Notre-Dame will seem like a formality. » No smarter than Mr. and Mrs. Everyman, Sibelle and I can hardly say more. Except to reiterate all our compassion to the Mahorais, and express to them our full and complete solidarity. That's the least.
Mardi._ Meanwhile, our dear old country is going through another storm. Policy. Institutional. Fourth Prime Minister in less than a year (a record since the post-war period), François Bayrou nevertheless went to chair the municipal council of his good town of Pau. Where he intends to remain mayor. The law does not prohibit it. Being mayor and parliamentarian is not compatible. But Prime Minister and Mayor, that’s okay. In a post on social networks, PS senator from Lot Jean-Marc Vayssouze-Faure addresses the head of government directly: “ Mr. Prime Minister, Mayor of Pau and President of the Pau Béarn Pyrénées conurbation, no, it is not serious to have so many mandates, nor to combine a mandate as mayor with that of parliamentarian. If you are afraid of disconnection, remain a municipal councilor. » In fact, this is what the former mayor of Cahors did when he was elected to the upper house. He remained a municipal councilor, and he can also travel around the department to meet his fellow citizens and stay as close as possible to the concerns of citizens and grassroots elected officials. Sibelle agrees but notes that in his time, the mayor still combined his mandate with that of president of Grand Cahors. Like many of his colleagues, it is true. We must believe that there is accumulation and accumulation. You have four hours…
Wednesday._ As tradition dictates, at the end of December, INSEE unveils its demographic counts. We thus learn that the Occitanie region continues to gain inhabitants at a sustained pace, driven by two locomotives: the metropolises of Toulouse and Montpellier. The first is also catching up with Lyon. As for the Lot, the number of births remains lower than that of deaths but the arrival of new families makes it possible to also continue to gain inhabitants, although in lower proportions than in Haute-Garonne. Sibelle wants to be very pragmatic: “ That’s good. The more things go, the more we will have to stick together…”
THURSDAY._ Exactly 60 years ago, André Malraux gave an exceptional speech on the occasion of the entry into the Pantheon of the ashes of Jean Moulin. The archive images are still moving. In front of General de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, Jacques Chaban-Delmas and hundreds of others, frozen by the words of the minister as by the freezing weather, for around twenty minutes, Malraux who fought in the North of the Lot within the resistance also evokes the region. “In a village in Corrèze, the Germans had killed maquis fighters and ordered the mayor to have them buried in secret at dawn. It is customary in this region for each woman to attend the funeral of any dead person in her village by standing at the grave of her own family. No one knew these dead people, who were Alsatians. When they reached the cemetery, carried by our peasants under the threatening guard of German machine guns, the night which receded like the sea revealed the black women of Corrèze, motionless from the top to the bottom of the mountain, and waiting in silence, each on the grave of his family, the burial of the French dead. » And then, further: “Leader of the Resistance martyred in hideous cellars, look with your vanished eyes at all these black women who watch over our companions: they carry the mourning of France, and yours. Watch the maquis slide under the dwarf oaks of Quercy, with a flag made of knotted muslin, the maquis that the Gestapo will never find because it only believes in big trees. » And then there is the finale, both lyrical and sublime: “Come in here, Jean Moulin, with your terrible procession…” Tears come to our eyes, with Sibelle, watching the video. But you must also always hear (or reread, it is possible on the Internet) the first part. It's a real capital history lesson. Which explains Jean Moulin's mission, which explains why it was fundamental that, beyond their pre-war journeys, their opinions, their beliefs, the resistance fighters united. So that there is only one France, united, admitted to the table of winners. Do we dare? When we review these archives, when we reread these words, our policies today seem… How can I say… Still seem a little inferior.
Friday._ After this tackle, let's respect tradition. As Sibelle says, “We’ve never been so close to Christmas”. So we're not going to beat around the bush. We wish you happy holidays. With family, with your friends. Without excess. But with joy. There will be, in the days to come, in your surroundings, even in the street, or on TV, a child, a pure soul, whose sparkling eyes and innocent smile will reconcile you, if only for a moment. moment, with this world so violent elsewhere.
