Tell me who your mayor is, I'll tell you which lobbyist he's meeting with!

In a few clicks, the curious citizen can find out about the day of municipal elected officials: in Bordeaux, we learn that, on February 1, 2024, Didier Jeanjean, deputy mayor, met Grégoire de Rugy, who works in a consulting firm specializing in major urban projects, we discovered that, on April 4, the mayor of Nantes (323,200 inhabitants), Johanna Rolland, met with the VYV Group, which brings together several mutuals, and we know that, on July 12, Grégory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon (522,300 inhabitants), saw the CEO of UGC, Brigitte Maccioni.

Although these interview notifications do not say much as such, they are accessible on the websites of the communities concerned and allow us to glimpse the making of local public decision-making. “Meetings of elected officials with lobby representatives” platforms are deployed for Bordeaux and Paris (2.13 million inhabitants), as well as for Nantes, under another name.

This non-obligatory transparency measure has spread to several large cities and some other communities, in various forms. The first to attempt the adventure was the capital, in July 2017. “We launched …