A score that evolves. Emmanuel Macron chose not to speak this Wednesday afternoon before the Congress of Mayors, meeting at the Porte de Versailles in Paris. A On the other hand, the president prefers to tour the halls of the Mayors’ Fair, which brings together several hundred professional exhibitors, before receiving 1,000 mayors around a cocktail party. To the regret of some of them.
“We mixed everything up a bit,” laments Christophe Rouillon, vice president of the Association of Mayors (AMF) with BFMTV.com.
“It’s a bit surprising to go to the merchandising stalls that sell us items instead of coming to discuss with us,” said the socialist mayor of Coulaines (Sarthe). “If it never happened, there is a reason.”
The Elysee defends “a more direct contact”
One of the institution’s collaborators goes much further: “It is almost an arm of honor to go see companies and not elected officials.”
“It is a different political option that allows a much more direct and stronger contact” with the mayors, breaking with the exercise of the word “not very formal and without exchange”, defends the Élysée.
It must be said that the executive has bad memories of Emmanuel Macron’s first meeting in the Congress of Mayors, when, a few months after his election in 2017, the head of state was whistled.
“I am committed to one thing, if they accept it, it is to come every year to report on the commitments that I have just made because that is the spirit of responsibility in the Republic,” Emmanuel Macron had launched at the time to appease local elected officials. .
a complicated relationship
However, the following year he skipped the meeting and instead hosted a reception at the Élysée, a format he adopted again this Wednesday night. At the time, the gesture greatly displeased local elected officials, further straining an already rocky relationship. Since then, the atmosphere has calmed down, after its very strong request by the government during the yellow vest crisis and then during the Covid-19 crisis.
However, two grievances continue to cloud the relationship between the president and the mayors: an executive judged too centralizing -despite the appointment of several local figures in the government such as Christophe Béchu, former mayor of Angers and Caroline Cayeux, former councilor of Beauvais- and a review of local taxes.
Terminal in Congress on Thursday
The president will speak again this Wednesday night before a thousand mayors gathered at the Élysée. “I still regret a little that I don’t speak in front of the 36,000 city councillors,” Judge Yvan Lubaneski, vice president of France’s rural mayors.
“Symbolically, it is quite different to speak at home or in our land,” said the left-wing mayor of Molières (Essonne). “But we will have a trade and that is what we will remember.”
The president must highlight the opening at the end of December of 2,600 France Services houses, which seek to maintain public services in the territories, or the creation of 35 additional sub-prefectures, including six this year.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will be present this Thursday before the Congress of Mayors and will have to seek to reassure the elected officials before the explosion of energy spending.
Source: BFM TV
