Between Emmanuel Macron and the mayors, a story of missed meetings

There will be no reception at the Elysée during the congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), which is being held in Paris from November 19 to 21. This is not the first time that this has happened since 2017, even if this meeting ended up establishing itself as a ritual. This year, Emmanuel Macron is touring Latin America. And the Head of State will therefore be completely absent from the gathering of mayors: no visit, no speech, no reception. A first (with the exception of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic).

During Emmanuel Macron's double mandate, relations between the President of the Republic and the AMF gradually deteriorated and today they are falling into hostile indifference. Budgetary issues have become a point of tension. After seven years of Macronism, local elected officials can no longer bear the lessons of a power that fails to keep the country's accounts accountable. “Apart from a drift in initially planned expenditure which is due to local authorities, there is no slippage in State expenditure”declares the Head of State to L’Expressin May. In September, the two former ministers of the economy and the budget of Gabriel Attal's government, Bruno Le Maire and Thomas Cazenave, mainly attributed the departure from public finances to local elected officials.

For seven years, Emmanuel Macron and the AMF have had a series of failed meetings. While, under the leadership, in particular, of its first vice-president, the socialist André Laignel, the association has developed an increasingly frontal line of opposition with the executive, the head of state has distant.

“Too centralizing vision”

After a lively exchange in 2021, during the congress of mayors, the President of the Republic abandoned the political event the following year, preferring a visit to the “living room”, where the partners of elected officials gather. In 2023, he was content with a reception of local elected officials at the Elysée, against a backdrop of recurring tensions. That year, a meeting on decentralization was organized at the Elysée between the head of state and local elected officials, without the AMF. In May 2024, the president of the association, David Lisnard (Les Républicains, LR), proposed to the President of the Republic to resolve, once and for all, the dispute over the finances of local authorities through a public debate. Emmanuel Macron never responded to him.

You have 64.72% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.