The mayor Les Écologues de Lyon, was one of the guests on “Face-à-Face” on BFMTV and RMC, Tuesday November 19. He spoke of the consequences of the reduction in the budget for local authorities.
“Our number one concern is our budgets.” Guest of “Face-à-Face” on BFMTV and RMC, this Tuesday, November 19, 2024, the mayor “Les Écologues” of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, shared his anger at the budget reduction imposed on local authorities by the government, which seeks to reduce the deficit announced in 2025.
The councilor believes that “the municipalities, whether they are left, right, environmentalists or others, are well managed”. And to insist: “It is not they who weigh on the State debt. In 30 years, the municipalities have gone from 9.2% to 8.9% of GDP in debt, when the State has passed from 33.7 to 90% of GDP in debt,” he explains.
“It is not the municipalities which create debt, it is the State and therefore what must be reformed is the State”, asserts the mayor of Lyon.
“A deadly project”
According to Grégory Doucet, the reduction in the budgets of local authorities will affect both the operation, that is to say “the staff that we put in our crèches, the number of municipal police officers, the upkeep and maintenance of public buildings”, and investments by the city of Lyon.
“It’s the thermal renovation of a public school that we will not be able to do, the solarization of the roofs of public buildings that we will not be able to carry out,” continues the elected environmentalist.
Grégory Doucet hopes to make these concerns heard by the government this Tuesday during the congress of mayors. Like him, many elected officials no longer hide their anger at the effort required of them in 2025. And for good reason, a contribution of “five billion euros” is being asked of them. A “deadly project” according to the mayor of Lyon, which puts him “in a situation of political impotence”.
“When we realize that we can no longer put ourselves at the service of others, there is nothing more frustrating. In addition, we are clearly asked to do penance for the errors made by others, this is not the case. 'it's not possible!', the chosen one gets annoyed.
“Cities spend correctly”
“Local authorities are responsible for a quarter of public investment in the country. We are very efficient economic operators, we are employers who pay attention to every euro spent. Once again, cities spend correctly, they are good managers,” he insists.
Other elected officials from the Rhone region had already expressed their dissatisfaction with the drop in their budget. This is the case of Bruno Bernard, president of the metropolis of Lyon.
“Concretely, we are no longer able, if these government decisions are confirmed, to assume our role. Are we going to have to close nursing homes? Are we going to have to give up having canteens in our colleges? Are we going to have to give up support or pay the RSA? We are in a situation which is not tenable with these announcements”, he denounced, at the microphone of BFM Lyon, last October.
For his part, Cédric Van Styvendael, mayor (PS) of Villeurbanne, declared: “We are trying to make people believe that we are not serious about our spending, quite simply to hide that the previous government and this one are not serious in their solutions.
