the mayor, “exhausted”, gives up her mandate

She got “exhausted” to the task: the mayor of Périgueux (Dordogne), Delphine Labail, announced “stand back” of its mandate to preserve its “health” and his “family balance”in a press release released late Friday evening. The 49-year-old socialist, elected head of this town of nearly 30,000 inhabitants in 2020, explains that she feels “the effects of significant professional burnout, which endangers both [sa] health and [son] family balance.

The one who is also regional councilor of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and first vice-president of the agglomeration of Grand Périgueux evokes “considerable energy” asked of a mayor, “mainly in rural areas”THE “expectations of those administered” and the “availability at any time”. She also points to the “political fight”, “more difficult and trying when you are a woman”. In her press release, Delphine Labail said she did not “did not save energy”facing “ever stronger regulatory constraints, ever more complex procedures and the limited financial constraints of local authorities”.

Withdrawal for several months

Antoine Audi, opposition leader and former right-wing mayor of Périgueux, guest of France Bleu Périgord on Saturday morning, estimated that the socialist mayor had made a “error”exhausting oneself “to make his mandate as mayor a political fight.” After announcing his withdrawal “for several months”Delphine Labail indicated that her first deputy would take over in her absence, in accordance with regulations.

At the Congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) last month, the Minister of Partnership with the Territories Catherine Vautrin indicated that 2,400 mayors – out of a total of around 35,000 in France – had resigned since the start of their mandate in June 2020, i.e. “40 more per year during this mandate”. And 83% of mayors believe that their mandate “is harmful to health”according to a study carried out in 2024 by Sciences Po and the CNRS for the AMF. In 2022, an Ifop survey also indicated that more than one in two mayors (55%) did not wish to run again at the end of their mandate in 2026, a record in twenty years.