Merger allowing better public services for its promoters, « absorption » for political purposes for its detractors: the new commune of Saint-Denis, second city in Île-de-France after Paris, came into force on Wednesday but has not finished fueling the quarrels.
To mark this merger between Saint-Denis and its neighbor Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, voted for last spring, mayors and elected officials of the socialist majority had planned a symbolic ribbon cutting, at a crossroads where the two panels still face each other.
A gesture which upset a Pierrefittoise member of the association “Stop Fusion Pierrefitte Saint-Denis” living on the border of the two former communes. Vituperating against a “unbelievable political strategy”she questioned several elected officials present on Wednesday before returning home.
The councilors of these towns in Seine-Saint-Denis, Mathieu Hanotin (Saint-Denis) and Michel Fourcade (Pierrefitte-sur-Seine), surprised with their merger decision announced in April 2023.
The two socialist mayors had highlighted that by becoming the second municipality in Île-de-France, behind Paris and ahead of Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), the new town would carry more weight at the national level for several arbitrations, particularly financial, and could also obtain new room for maneuver for investment.
This merger will also lead to a reduction in taxes for the inhabitants of Pierrefitte who will also be able to benefit from the school canteen and the policy to combat substandard housing in Saint-Denis.
“Reservoir of voices” socialists
With officially 149,781 inhabitants, according to the town hall services, the new municipality will barely be able to obtain an allocation reserved for merged municipalities totaling less than 150,000 inhabitants.
The new community will thus receive 15 euros per inhabitant for three years, for a total of approximately 6.74 million euros.
But the endowment “will not be sufficient to absorb the reduction in taxes on Pierrefitte”declared to AFP Sofia Boutrih, PCF municipal councilor in Saint-Denis and leader of the opposition to Mr. Hanotin, who is worried about “organizational difficulties”.
For opponents of the merger, the project is above all a political maneuver in order to acquire “a reservoir of voices” socialists in view of the next municipal elections in March 2026, while Mathieu Hanotin had taken over the city in 2020, in the hands of the communists since the Liberation.
“The votes do not belong to us”responded Michel Fourcade on Wednesday, who becomes first deputy of the new commune alongside Mr. Hanotin, while remaining mayor of the delegated commune of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine.
“It is necessary that (the oppositions) have something to say”he evacuates.
Taking note of the merger, Ms. Boutrih will not “not campaign on demerger”.
On the other hand, she promises, if she becomes head of town hall in 2026, to conduct an audit before consulting the population on the need to continue or not, recalling that the marriage of the two cities was not in the programs of both mayors during the last municipal elections.
Reduction in the number of elected officials
The merger process is permitted by a 2010 law enriched by other texts.
The main targets are villages and small rural communities in a country which has long had more than 36,000 communities, with the risk of seeing some of them without governance due to a lack of candidates for elections, and sometimes at the cost of a poor public service.
In this sense, the marriage of big cities is ” atypical “conceded last May Françoise Gatel, then centrist senator from Ille-et-Vilaine and today deputy minister in charge of Rurality, at the origin of a law in 2019 on new municipalities.
To be effective, the merger must be voted on in the municipal council without compulsory consultation of the population, then validated by the prefecture, which verifies compliance with the procedure.
On May 31, 2024, the project for the new commune of Saint-Denis was voted with 45 votes in favor out of 55 in Saint-Denis and 26 in favor out of 36 in Pierrefitte.
The installation municipal council will be held on Saturday at Saint-Denis town hall, bringing together the 94 municipal councilors.
In the next municipal elections, the number of elected officials will be significantly reduced – possibly around 60.
