the essential
“Drain of 10 billion euros”, “unhappiness of elected officials”, “recentralization”: the mayors of Ariège denounced the attitude of the government and the budget cuts announced by the State. Around a hundred of them demonstrated this Monday, December 18 in Foix, before going to the prefecture.
On the eve of the 106th national congress of mayors, more than a hundred elected officials responded to the call for mobilization from the association of mayors and elected officials of Ariège, this Monday, November 18. In fact, around a third of the department's mayors responded and gathered under the Villote hall, in Foix, to denounce a 2025 finance bill (PLF) “which provides for a cut of nearly 10 billion euros”, underlines the Association of Mayors and Elected Officials of Ariège, “an unacceptable budget for local authorities”.
“The government has decided to take nearly 10 billion euros from local authorities […]. We know from experience that the more the State has drawn from community revenues, the less it has made the efforts it asks of others, and the more the public accounts have deteriorated”, states in the first sentences the letter that the elected officials handed over yesterday morning to the prefect of Ariège, Simon Bertoux.
“An insidious recentralization” which strangles the municipalities
If the budget cuts announced by the government do not go through with many of the region's mayors, the government's posture is also being singled out. “The problem is in substance, but also in form, as when ministers assert that the State deficit comes from a large part of the communities. Mayors can only be angry at these declarations” , launches Senator Jean-Jacques Michau, in his capacity as president of the association of mayors and elected officials of Ariège.
“Measures with recessive effects”, “budgetary asphyxiation”, the words are strong and “the stakes are enormous”. “We must understand that mayors are on the front line, night and day, to provide support and assistance to those administered, continues Jean-Jacques Michau. But today, we are witnessing an insidious recentralization, which is taking place by strangling financially little by little the capacity to act of our municipalities If the Prime Minister does not reverse the decisions he announced, many services in our municipalities will not be able to continue.
5 million euros of planned investments postponed by the departmental council
In the procession, the mayors could also count on the support of the deputies of the two Ariégeois constituencies, Martine Froger and Laurent Panifous, or of the president of the departmental council Christine Téqui.
“We leave the department's meetings with partial announcements, we announce the 2% drain on operating allocations to the departments, a lot of concern about the VAT compensation fund […]. In short, we are here to remind you that the department is alongside its fellow citizens, and that it is a common battle. When the allocations are less, the investments are less, it is less work for our companies, and therefore difficulties for employees in general and for employment,” insisted the elected official.
Who also recalled that 5 million euros of investments, although planned in the departmental budget, had to be postponed due to insufficient revenue.
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