“In fact, it’s the Wild West here,” sighs Bruno Clément. Financial assistant to the mayor of Méry-sur-Marne, a village of less than 700 inhabitants, in the far north-east of Seine-et-Marne, this elected official left his position last September to join, in fact, the opposition. Because nothing is going well in this village anymore. One might believe that merciless political battles, low blows, negotiations, threats, attacks are the nature of Parisian politics or big cities. This is not the case because power struggles can rage in the villages too.
“And this is not new because it has been the case since the start of the current mandate,” laments the resigning mayor, Isabel Lourenço Ribeiro (SE), elected in 2020. “The opposition has never stopped to beat me up for four years. » This unbreathable atmosphere got the better of her. She returned her scarf and reported it to the prefecture at the end of December. Four running mates who had remained loyal to her followed her. There will therefore be a new election on February 23 to fill the vacant seats.
