As one might expect, given the latest publications on the networks and on paper issued by the left-wing opposition, the atmosphere was electric this Monday, November 25 in the evening, in the municipal hemicycle. The first issue on the municipal council's agenda was the initial budget and the 2025 tax rate. It provoked a heated debate for a good hour.
However, in the preamble, Mayor Gérard Régnier had tried to defuse the situation, during a speech evoking the glaring points of divergence between the majority and the opposition. He therefore began with an update on the Tour de France and what it cost the City: “225,363 euros, including 95,254 for hosting the Tour, 117,899 for events and territorial marketing operations and 12,210 euros for meetings organized in advance (Défi 47, Dictée du Tour, etc.). It is necessary to deduct the 55,000 euros in subsidy from the Department, the 100,000 euros from the Interprofessional Prune Office and the 45,000 euros from sponsorship. In the end, off-road [30 000 euros, NDLR] and additional personnel expenses, the net cost of the Tour de France was 24,863 euros. »
The mayor's statement did not calm people's minds
Gérard Régnier then tried to calm things down by addressing the second point: the debt contracted by the City since the start of the mandate. A subject that has become delicate after the opposition, via social networks and their newspaper, expressed concern about an “explosion of debt, going from 19.6 million euros in 2023 to 27.9 million in 2024, and with a projection of 33.4 million euros for 2025, an increase of more than 70% in just two years.” Figures that Gérard Régnier wanted to qualify: “We consider that the situation of a community is worrying when the number of years to repay the debt with its gross savings is greater than twelve years […]. In Villeneuve-sur-Lot, in 2025, we will only be 6.8 years away. »
“We did the work out of necessity and for safety”
But the mayor's statement did not calm people's minds. At the end of the presentation of the initial 2025 budget, which ensures an unchanged rate of property tax, Frédéric Ladrech, Ensemble councilor for Villeneuve, announced that he was going to vote against “because, as with the previous budget, you underestimate expenses and overestimate revenues,” adding that “you have been blaming us for the poor state of the Georges-Leygues theater for four years now. I am surprised to still not see work included in the budget for this one and to see that your preference is for sports equipment […]. »
Word released
The tension then rose a notch in the ranks of the majority, already raised by the readings, a few days before, of the virtual and paper publications of the left opposition group: “The work that we undertook were priorities , says angrily Michel Laville, deputy for sport. In particular the stadium where nothing had been done for seventy years. We became aware of structural and security problems on the platform. Not to mention the Studio, which has been non-compliant for ten years, and which we were forced to partially close. What a shame to have welcomed people into places like that. We did the work out of necessity and for safety. »
“The exchanges were somewhat violent, it almost seemed like the National Assembly…”
After a list of projects set out by Frédéric Ladrech which further inflamed the ranks, and a verbal ping-pong on the work necessary or not, Guillaume Lepers, now a simple municipal councilor, spoke without taking gloves: “C It's happiness, I'm free to be in this place today and to no longer be mayor… I'm enjoying it. I've been hearing nonsense in this City Council for four years. Mr. Ladrech, we are starting to get to know the record. You are trying to scare with your speech on the City's debt. You are cheating with the figures and what worries me is that it happens on the benches of your friends from La France Insoumise… When I read certain magazines distributed in the street, they only say nonsense. I read “800,000 euros budget for events”. It’s totally false, I tell the Villeneuvois. And 200,000 euros for the sidewalks… This is also completely false. You have to look at the figures that we give you in the municipal council! Certainly, the majority chose to work rather than respond to you. It is true that responding to an idiot makes him intelligent. »
This last sentence made the opposition jump and in particular Thomas Bouyssonnie for Villeneuve in common: “The exchanges were somewhat violent. We almost thought we were in the National Assembly…”
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