“I have no intention at all.” to remove the banners installed on the pediment of the Bordeaux City Hall, assures, Saturday November 9, on franceinfo the ecological mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic. These two banners denounce the State's cuts in the budgets of local authorities.
Invoking the “principle of neutrality of public services”the prefect of Gironde asked the mayor of Bordeaux on Friday to “comply with the law as quickly as possible”, without what “legal action would be taken by the State.”
“The State is cutting the municipal budget of Bordeaux by 16.5 million euros, where do we get them?” asks the first banner displayed this week on the building. “Would you prefer to deprive all students of a canteen or eliminate the municipal police? Do you find that absurd? We do too,” answers the second.
“The prefect will refer the matter to the administrative court, we will see how the administrative court will arbitrate,” declares Pierre Hurmic. He indicates that he wants “leave this display as long as possible so that the people of Bordeaux can have time to read it.”
“I consider that the expression that was mine through these panels is only the reflection of what is the position of many mayors and many local authorities in this country”, explains Pierre Hurmic. “We are faced with an abysmal slippage in public accounts, one of the worst deficits in our history, and instead of assuming the consequences of these choices, the State wants to make us pay for its disastrous management, which is not only unfair, but unbearable”he continues.
The councilor believes that it is “best way to resist, to denounce” the 2025 finance bill, which provides for local authorities to contribute several billion euros to the savings desired by the Barnier government. “I consider that it is my role to say that the State is in the process of encroaching on the free administration of local authorities and their power of appreciation in budgetary matters, and, I remind you, that this principle has constitutional value.”he adds. According to him, the government “seeks to restrain” both the economics of community management, “that is to say local democracy”but also its “freedom of expression”.
Pierre Hurmic also denounces the “local pressure” et “extraordinary aggression” of the former Minister of Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave, elected opposition member of the Bordeaux municipal council and “one of the two architects, with Bruno Le Maire, of this disastrous management and this unbearable deficit”. “We have no lessons to learn from people who have also mismanaged public finances”he adds. “I already have expenses that are increasing and I keep a balanced budget. The State is not capable of it,” concludes Pierre Hurmic.
