It is urgent to return some power to citizens and the elected officials who represent them

• The theme of 106^e AMF Congress will be “The commune… Fortunately! ” For what ?

The municipalities are the first recourse and, often, the last hope of our fellow citizens in the face of a distant and failing State. Mayors embody proximity in the face of dehumanized administrations. The town hall is the last contact to which residents turn to resolve their problems, when they have exhausted their efforts elsewhere, at all ages of life.

So yes, fortunately France can count on this extraordinary “field army” made up of the 498,000 local elected officials, these “little hands” of the Republic who devote themselves to their commune and their fellow citizens.

The municipality is a social shock absorber, with the department. Particularly since 2020, elected officials and municipal agents have helped the State and its citizens deal with multiple health, economic, social and ecological crises.

• The State does not, however, seem to have perceived the role of the municipalities…

The State is held back by a high administration whose agents have the impression of being in the know. The constitutional principles of free administration and financial and fiscal autonomy are not respected. The executive nationalized local taxation – elimination of the housing tax, the contribution on the added value of businesses (CVAE) – and imposed on communities a reduction in their allocations. Today, it almost calls into question their freedom to invest by pointing out their need for financing which would worsen the public accounts deficit! A fable!

• How do elected officials feel?

For months, they had no contact person. They are faced with a series of uncertainties about the amount of State allocations, the amount of its investment and equipment subsidies, and the compensation for local tax cuts. How to construct a municipal budget in these conditions? The mayor is currently like a captain who has lost his navigation instruments…

• You believe that communities are the last resort in the face of the economic crisis. For what ?

Because they represent 70% of public civil investment, half of which goes to the municipal block. They are therefore essential for the revival of activity and growth in all sectors of activity. It is still necessary that the State does not disengage as it does, for example, with regard to the green fund: the latter, essential to support the colossal investments that communities must make in the ecological transition, would be cut by 60 %, or 1.5 billion euros this year! Zero net artificialization (ZAN), imposed on elected officials, is also a brake on economic development. It is urgent to relax its application as the AMF requests. Because mayors already no longer have any fiscal return on their efforts to welcome businesses. With the ZAN, it’s the double blade!

• What is the risk?

If the State does not urgently increase the financing capacities of communities, we risk a recession which will begin in the building and public works sector. He can still do it for 2025. The mayors have lots of projects, they imagine the evolution of their municipality in ten years. Today, they are not able to imagine it at six months old! This risks slowing down many initiatives. We must support their efforts because the recovery depends on them.

• What should the State do?

The State must stop contradictory injunctions: ask communities to control their spending while imposing new ones on them – the increase in the index point, the creation of the public early childhood service, the crèche plan, the renovation of buildings school… – and while asking them to invest. In my town of Issoudun, I opened 18 new nursery places and created 7 jobs: am I a bad mayor because I incur such an expense? Do I have to give up to be a good mayor?

• The executive presented, at the beginning of October, before the Local Finance Committee (CFL), the communities component of the 2025 budget. What are the AMF’s demands?

The AMF requests an indexation of the overall operating allocation (DGF) to inflation. This allocation is money that the State owes to communities. It must no longer fall in constant euros. The executive must also increase the credits for the rural areas equipment grant (DETR) and those for the local investment support grant (DSIL) which could be grouped into a single grant with the rules applicable to the DETR. . In terms of taxation, we must collectively think about the creation of a new local tax. The AMF proposes the creation of a universal territorial contribution.

• Decentralization, financial autonomy, local freedoms… On all these subjects, the AMF does not seem to have found any resonance with the Head of State in recent years. Do you remain optimistic?

“The pessimism of intelligence obliges optimism of action,” said the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci… There is no obstacle that we cannot overcome. It is urgent to return some power to citizens and the elected officials who represent them.

The AMF has made multiple proposals to deepen local freedoms based on a simple principle: subsidiarity. This requires trust between the executive and communities. In recent years, at best, the State has listened to us but it has not heard us.

Mayors have, however, shown their essential role in the face of all crises, alongside the State. The latter must consider them as partners. I hope that the next government will have the political courage and a majority to begin the crucial project of a new act of decentralization. The AMF is obviously available to do this. If France does not choose this path, it will sink deeper and deeper into decline.

• Since 2020, the municipal mandate has been very difficult. Do you fear a vocations crisis in 2026?

I hope not. Let’s bet that the next mandate will not be one of continuity of the numerous crises that have occurred over the past four and a half years. We must also complete the reform of the status of elected officials before the end of 2025 to improve the conditions for exercising the mandate by providing better social, legal and financial guarantees to those who commit. Here again, the AMF makes proposals.

What do you expect from the government appointed on September 21?

“The government includes personalities who have managed communities. The ministry dedicated to the Territories [occupé par Catherine Vautrin, ancienne présidente du Grand Reims (51) et ancien membre des instances dirigeantes de l’AMF] has a title that conveys the idea of ​​partnership with communities and that of decentralization. We are now waiting for content to be given to this partnership and this decentralizing desire. Decentralization takes time. I hope that the political context will allow us to move forward. The AMF will be a force for proposals as it has been for so many years in these areas. »

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