Besançon refuses government budget cuts

A banner displayed on the facade of the town hall, in the heart of Besançon (Doubs), denounces “the cut of 5.6 million euros from the city's 2025 budget”. An initiative by elected officials from the municipal majority to tell the residents of Bison that they refuse to implement the savings imposed by the State as part of the 2025 Finance Bill.

“We are not ready to pay for the state’s management errors”the finance assistant for the city of Besançon, Anthony Poulin (EELV) is categorical: “the government is weakening communities”. He continues: “If I combine all the deductions for the communities of Franche-Comté – announced in the 2025 Finance Bill -, this corresponds to more than 110 million euros”.

Hence the question posed by the banner displayed this November 7 by the majority of the environmentalist, and mayor Anne Vignot: “The State is cutting the municipal budget of Besançon by 5.6 million euros. Where do we get them?”. According to the elected representatives of the Bisontine majority, these 5.6 million euros could result in “deprive all students of a canteen in Besançon” or even to “get rid of the municipal police”. A choice “absurd” what the municipality will not do. It's just to realize the consequences, judged as “dramatic” by elected officials, of this savings project desired by the government.

In Besançon, 5.6 million euros “it is the equivalent of the budget devoted to public security/tranquility, half of the subsidy paid to the CCAS or two-thirds of the budget dedicated to subsidies from associations”. In 2025, the budget of the city of Besançon (voted in March) should be 212 million euros.

This banner was hung just on the day of the city's municipal council scheduled from 5 p.m. Thursday, November 7. Budgetary guidelines are not on the agenda, but this question could come up for debate. A motion must be proposed by all the political groups of the Bisontine majority.

More than ever, we need a strong and strengthened public service serving residents.

“The government is unilaterally committing to a 60 billion euro savings program” by asking cities, departments and regions to make savings. A “injustice” for Anthony Poulin, the deputy in charge of finances.

Also read => Three billion savings imposed on local authorities: local elected officials denounce an “implausible” decision

At the conclusion of this motion, the municipal council of Besançon asks parliamentarians to “reject this deadly finance bill” and to the government of “remove the measures from this PLF which impose a drain on local authorities”.

It is not only left-wing or environmentalist elected officials who are contesting this decision by the Barnier government. The Prime Minister announced that he wanted to save 60 billion, including 5 billion requested from communities. On the right too, community leaders find the pill bitter.

The Doubs department should make 25 million savings on its 2025 budget. Like the mayor of Besançon Anne Vignot (EELV), thehe president, Christine Bouquin (LR), also reacted strongly to these budgetary restrictions at the end of October. For the Doubs department, this represents around 25 million euros less on a budget of 650 to 655 million euros less, or between 3.84 and 3.81%.

The leader of the municipal opposition, Ludovic Fagaut (LR), also sits on the Doubs departmental council, but there, he is in the majority of President Christine Bouquin (LR). The chosen one is first vice-president in charge of return to employment, integration and social action.

For him, this banner unfurled on the facade of the town hall, “it’s quite demagogic” and he believes that we cannot compare the two communities. “Taking the facade of town hall for a partisan platform bothers me” says the elected official in the municipal opposition. According to Ludovic Fagaut, elected within the two communities, there is “two rooms, two atmospheres”. He opposes “demagogic remarks” from the mayor of Besançon to the attitude “combative” of the president of the department.

In fact, both Anne Vignot and Christine Bouquin are opposed to the budgetary restrictions which should be voted on by parliamentarians in the state finance bill.

According to Ludovic Fagaut, the consequences of the budgetary austerity plan decided by the government have less consequences for municipalities than for departments.

The president of the departmental council wants to maintain the vote on the 2025 budget of her community in a “fighting spirit and resistance”without including the savings measures that the State could impose on it.

“We have chosen to keep our budgetary calendar and to maintain the vote on our budget next December”declared Christine Bouquin in plenary session, thus making the opposite choice of other communities, which postponed the vote on their budget to integrate the measures which will be decided at the end of the vote in Parliament on the finance bill ( PLF) 2025 of the State.

According to her, “if all the measures envisaged in the PLF 2025 were applied, 25 million euros would be withdrawn from the Doubs department”which would also affect “the renovation of colleges” that the “modernization of nursing homes”and would lead “the abandonment of 80%” of investments on departmental roads”.

“We must be combative and certainly not admit defeat. Even if time is running out, we still have time to refuse, convince and propose“, she affirmed in front of the elected officials of the department, vilifying the “Bercy technicians”, “locked in their ivory tower, so far from the realities on the ground”.

Christine Bouquin's position was unanimously supported by the members of the Departmental Council, who also adopted the resolution of the association of departments of France alerting the government and parliamentarians on “the extent of the effort required”.

Besançon is not the only city to display its opposition to the Barnier government's budget cuts on a banner.

Also read => Would you prefer to eliminate the canteen or the municipal police? Behind its absurd dilemma, the Bordeaux town hall wants to make the State react

Since November 4, a banner of the same type as that of Besançon has been displayed on the facade of the Bordeaux town hall. The approach of the environmentalist mayor Pierre Hurmic (EELV) should also be taken up by the EELV mayor of Lyon. The city of La Rochelle is also preparing to display its opposition.

This Thursday, November 7, several dozen local elected officials from the Toulouse region, many wearing tricolor scarves, mobilized in front of the Haute-Garonne prefecture to send a “angry message” in the face of cost-saving measuresdrastic and brutal” requested of them in the 2025 finance bill.

Throughout France, many communities have expressed their concern about the savings requested in the 2025 Finance Bill. In Occitanie, at the end of October, the Gers department plunged its hemicycle into darkness, to denounce a “hold-up“of the State on local finances.