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Budget, attacks… The mayors of are fed up before the opening of their 106th congress

The 106th congress of mayors of begins this Tuesday against a backdrop of dissatisfaction among local elected officials with the efforts asked of them in the government's draft budget for 2025.

The mayors meet in congress from this Tuesday, November 19 in , while anger does not subside despite the government's attempts to clear mines, in the face of the scale of the budgetary restrictions requested from communities in 2025 to reduce the public deficit.

After a 2023 edition dedicated to “communities under attack”, against a backdrop of increasing attacks against elected officials, the 106th congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) intends to recall the importance of the municipal and intercommunal level, ” pole of stability” in a period of national political uncertainty. Entitled “The communes… Fortunately!”, this key political meeting is particularly anticipated this year.

A contribution of “five billion euros” is requested from them, or “12.5% ​​of the overall savings effort” of 40 billion euros, but the associations of elected officials estimate the bill at 11 billion euros. euros. The Senate should decide in favor of reducing the contribution to two billion euros, the president of the centrist group in the Senate, Hervé (UDI), said on Sunday on France 3.

Demonstrations in and Seine-et-

At the beginning of September, the accusation of having caused the deficit to slip away from the previous tenants of Bercy had ignited the powder. Between the obligation to vote for balanced budgets and a stable debt for 30 years, the AMF had pounded the criticisms made against the communities.

A month later, the Court of Auditors' proposal to reduce their workforce by 100,000 civil servants to avoid duplication and save 4.1 billion euros, then the announcement of savings measures of an unprecedented scale on a single budgetary exercise had further added fuel to the fire.

In the midst of preparing the budgets, resounding outings from angry elected officials abound: the sale of a prefecture in Le Bon coin in Haute-Marne, demonstrations in Toulouse as well as in Seine-et-Marne, banners on the Town Hall of , call for a “generalized resignation” in Verdun (Meuse)…

“Yellow vests”

The Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, partially put out the fire on Friday by promising the departmental stratum a “very significantly” reduced effort due to the explosion in their social spending.

“If we want to avoid the next 'yellow vests' wearing tricolor scarves, we will have to (…) trust the mayors,” David Lisnard, president of the AMF and LR mayor of , insisted at the beginning of November , deploring a denigration of municipal action and a disintegration of resources. In the newspaper La Tribune Dimanche, he affirms that he “does not despair of changing (the) draft budget”.

“This congress risks being, this is what we hear from the field, the congress of anger,” noted André Laignel, number two of the AMF and PS mayor of Issoudun (Indre).

“The vast majority of communities are well managed and participate in the economic development of their territory. That said, it is important that everyone contributes to the national effort to restore public accounts,” declared in an interview with Le Figaro mis online on Sunday the Minister of Partnership with Communities, Catherine Vautrin.

Furthermore, added Catherine Vautrin, a text of law currently being examined on the status of elected officials should “succeed” before the next municipal elections.

83% of mayors believe that their mandate is tiring

The budgetary episode comes in a context of already degraded relations between the State and communities since the start of Macron's five-year term.

Local elected officials regularly denounce disguised transfers of State powers without financial compensation or associated human resources, a “tyranny of standards”, or the progressive abolition of local taxes which accentuates their dependence on the State.

In this context, the Institute of Economics for Climate (I4CE) estimates the need for investment by communities to face climate challenges at an additional 11 billion euros annually.

Sixteen months before the next municipal elections, this congress is under even greater scrutiny as the resignations of elected officials have reached an unprecedented level according to David Lisnard, 30% more than the previous mandate according to the Cevipof research center. Some 2,400 mayors have resigned since 2020, Catherine Vautrin also underlined on Sunday.

“I'm not sleeping”

Camille Pouponneau, mayor of Pibrac (Haute-Garonne), threw in the towel in mid-October. “My daily life is more devoted to controlling dog waste than to structuring projects for the future of the municipality,” she explained.

Without going that far, Michel Lebouc, various left-wing mayor of Magnanville () also talks about his difficulties to BFMTV, a year and a half after being attacked in the hall of his town hall. “I know that when I'm really stressed, I don't sleep. I go around town to see if things are going well. [Cela arrive] more and more”, testifies the city councilor.

According to the AMF, 83% of mayors believe that their mandate is “wearying” for their health, and 86% suffer or have suffered from sleep disorders.

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