“This is not a solution,” lamented Nicolas Martin (PS), the mayor of Mons. Speaking to La Libre, he particularly regretted “the lack of consultation on the part of the government which, through this decision, forces us to pay instead of the federal government”. “What is not correct is to consider, as the minister does, that we are bad managers; we must nevertheless know that the operating costs of the City of Charleroi are lower than the average,” said his assertive side Thomas Dermine (PS), the mayor of Charleroi.
For François Desquesnes, Walloon Minister of Local Authorities, this loan from the Region is above all “a strong gesture of support”. “To say that the Walloon government is not on the side of the large Walloon cities which are having difficulties is to be mistaken. Because 110 million euros (amount of loans granted to the cities of Liège and Charleroi, editor’s note) on budgets of 700 to 800 million, it is considerable support It is a loan, of course, but with an intervention from the Walloon Region, which pays the interest and 15% of the loan. repayment of the annuity”, he declared at the microphone of Maxime Binet this Tuesday morning on LN24.
How can the cities of Mons, Liège and Charleroi get out of their financial precariousness?
He rejects the idea of being placed under supervision, and explains: “What we are asking of the cities is to be in balance: that is to say expenses = revenue. With the loan of the Wallonia. Afterwards, there is a catalog of provisions, but it is up to the municipalities to make the choices to get there.” Among this list of measures, we can cite the establishment of automatic recovery procedures for unpaid debts, the end of free provision of municipal staff, the reduction of scabinal offices by 15%, the end of services made available free of charge to the population or even the end of the status of municipal staff. “As part of their municipal autonomy, municipalities must make choices that allow them to balance expenditure and revenue. Any household or any business must understand that at a given moment, we cannot live on credit”, summarized François Desquesnes.
The Walloon government validates a loan of 235 million for Charleroi, Liège and Mons: “The method raises questions”, estimates Thomas Dermine
According to the Sonégien there are three points to work on so that the cities of Liège, Mons and Charleroi can emerge from their financial precariousness, caused by the pensions of statutory agents, the financing of the police and emergency zones and the weight of the income of ‘integration. “First we must call on the federal government to take its responsibilities. The law provides, with regard to emergency zones, that half of the funding must be provided by the federal government. Which is not the case today, there is a form of solidarity which must be established more in the Walloon territory and that is the responsibility of the Region”, he explained, before pointing out, to conclude. , the responsibility of municipalities in relation to their own expenses. He deplored a specific case of “waste of money”: “For example, I told the mayor of Liège, I received three invitations in 15 days to go to the theater for free in Liège, from the alderman of culture. But we must stop this spending.
He concluded by affirming that the Oxygen Plan “is not a structural solution”, but “a plaster on a wooden leg, a bubble of oxygen which allows us to pass two or three years”.
