They were to cost 37,000 euros. This expenditure initially planned for the greeting ceremonies in January 2025, the president of the Marne departmental council, Jean-Marc Roze, simply chose to postpone it until later, perhaps in 2026, if the context is more favorable . “Our department has been very well managed, but, for the first time in 150 years, we will be in the red in 2025, like around fifty others,” he admits, before emphasizing that the department “must refocus on our essential missions. I can't tell mayors that we no longer have the means to invest in our roads and our colleges and drink champagne, eat petits fours… What image does that give? We need to set a little example. Doing wish ceremonies doesn’t make sense this year.”
One of the two ceremonies was planned at the Capitole, in Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne), on January 17, 2025. Nearly 500 guests are generally invited to this important event organized with the prefecture for the attention of established bodies. Furthermore, the ceremony addressed to the department's agents, traditionally planned a few days earlier, is also canceled.
The department's debt on January 1, 2025 will be around 180 million euros, or an average of 315 euros per inhabitant, well below the average debt per inhabitant of 488 euros for all departments in 2023, but also the equivalent amounts for the Dordogne, Nièvre and Cantal, which exceed 1,000 euros. But, at a time when the State is requesting new financial efforts from the departments, the future looks uncertain.
“I am far from the only one to have made this decision to cancel the vows. It will probably cause an oil stain. We perfectly understand that the government is seeking to get out of debt: we cannot remain at this level of debt. But we cannot ask communities to toast. We have an explosion in our social spending and nothing comes to compensate,” concludes Jean-Marc Roze.
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