The municipal majority of Yves Juhel, Mayor of Menton, is disintegrating. Five elected officials have signed a platform to announce that they are joining the opposition after disagreements over financial management.
Is Menton City Hall sinking into a political crisis? Five elected officials have just announced in a press release that they are leaving the majority and will now sit in opposition to Yves Juhel.
“After having alerted, warned and sounded the alarm on the budgetary state and the daily management of the municipality, no point of resolution was found after several consultative meetings,” explain the elected officials.
“Yet another episode”
These are the tenth deputy, Patrick Calvi, the delegated municipal councilors Dominique Nicolaï and Isabelle Almonte as well as the municipal councilors Michel Février and Julie Macari.
“We are taking this decision out of respect for the voters of Menton who trusted us during the last municipal election because we cannot endorse yet another episode of obvious dysfunction. There is no animosity driving our action, it is the result of tangible observations that jeopardize the municipality’s budget,” they continue, inviting “the remaining members of the municipal team” to contact them to obtain more information.
End of collaboration with the chief of staff
In a press release published late in the afternoon and seen by Nice-Matin, the mayor of Menton acknowledged this defection and regretted “the false dissemination of information which in fact masks another, perhaps more partisan, design”.
The mayor explains that he announced to elected officials on Thursday, August 29, that he had agreed to one of their main demands: the departure of the chief of staff. He has since assured that he brought together elected officials from the majority on Tuesday and secured their support.
“The unanimity of the elected representatives of the majority present affirmed their desire to support the mayor and to continue the implementation of the projects of the mandate,” he defends.
As a result of this new defection, the mayor can count on 19 elected officials who have remained loyal, compared to 17 opponents.
A context of tensions
This episode comes in a context of tension linked to the implication of the mayor in the Menton ports affair. The former head of the public company of the ports of Menton, pinned for suspicious expense reports amounting to 700,000 euros, accused the mayor of having asked him to do “things for him”. The mayor has since filed a complaint for “false information” and “accusation without any value”.
More recently, Yves Juhel distinguished himself by failing in court to force the resignation of three municipal councillors who had refused to preside over polling stations during the last European elections.
Manon Aversa with Florent Bascoul
