“The State must no longer treat us like vassals”

“Paris is enough,” Dominique Santoni launched Thursday in front of an audience of local elected officials gathered at the Vaucluse mayors’ lounge where the new prefect was conspicuous by his absence. With 15 million euros in savings to be found, the president of the 5th poorest department in France expressed her “fed up“faced with a State accused of having”burned the fund and turned to (the communities) to replenish its deficits“.

“The State and Paris must learn to treat the municipalities”

The tone clearly softened yesterday after the Prime Minister's statements which will not only lighten the recovery effort requested “to return to much more acceptable proportions“, but also sketches a “rebalancing of powers” that Dominique Santoni called for.

“The co-construction of local policies that Michel Barnier talks about is a big step forward as local elected officials no longer support these unilateral decisions taken from above for years and which were imposed on us“, observes President LR of the Departmental Council who deplores the “excesses of centralism” of the French administrative model. “The State and Paris must learn to treat municipalities, departments and regions as partners and no longer as vassals. This is the meaning of Michel Barnier's declarations and I welcome them because I think that there is no other alternative for the recovery of our country.“, concludes Dominique Santoni.