“QWhat a contrast between the national spectacle and the local reality! » At the close of the Congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) this Thursday, November 20 in Paris, its president, David Lisnard, spoke of the 500,000 local elected officials (often volunteers) who suffer – like many French people – from what the mayor of Cannes called a “crisis of public powerlessness”, and asked that it “stop being transferred to the local level”. In his long speech, David Lisnard laid out a catalog of helplessness, obstruction, mismanagement, asphyxia – as he has done before in our columns – that slowed down the actions of the mayors of “republican emergency workers” who turned into “subcontractors, palliatives, servants of the State”, ridiculed the laughter of his fellow “Cycracies”, “who think that taxation is austerity”, and demanded decentralization that was not limited to “patching” the Titanic”.
Across from him, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu listened with stoicism, even at times favoring the first-mayor formula. There was no derision this time, as there was with President Macron in the past, a certain respect, even sometimes friendship for a head of government who spent most of his career as a local elected official – starting with the mayor of Vernon. This did not prevent things from coming out, to express the “disgust” of city council members. And this was clear in the resolution unanimously approved by the AMF office – and read by its vice president, André Laignel – that highlighted the city’s “tiring” mandate.
READ ALSO In Paris, 13,000 mayors gathered to reveal secrets (whistleblowers). “The mandate began with containment, but ended in confusion,” the AMF believes. Six years is enough to bring into focus almost all possible crises: health, social, environmental, economic, geopolitical… and the resulting crises: political, institutional, democratic.
Six years full of surprises and amazement
Crises that weaken public confidence, weaken budgets, weaken public services, often leave us, the mayors, alone on the front line. At the same time, the State constrains our capacity to take action amidst the control or oppression of our financial resources, the transfer of skills, or the imposition of often conflicting and even unreasonable standards.
Six years full of surprises, amazement, but also an exemplary capacity for adaptation. Community is there when things are rocky. In biology, there is a term to describe this property of life: resilience. Robustness is the ability to maintain a system that is stable in the short term and can survive in the long term, despite fluctuations.”
The council members made a stark observation: “The mandate we have just implemented has caused our economy to suffer for a long period of time. The national debt has soared to the point of threatening our sovereignty; reindustrialization is difficult to implement due to contradictory orders, unfavorable business dynamics or job creation. If we add to this picture the huge risk of a slowdown in local investment, then all the factors leading to a recession are there. In the face of these difficulties, the energy of the country is wavering; our region is weakening, France weaken.”
“We no longer accept that the state is dragging us along to the wreck of its ship”
Representatives of French mayors sounded a warning, even tocsin: “We are a real seismograph that reveals the shocks taking place in the social body. For a long time, we have felt a collective impatience rumbling, civil divisions still alive. The anxiety expressed by the Yellow Vests will not subside as long as the list of complaints, opened in our city halls, remains without a real response. The hope for justice, recognition, equality and hearing that animates our spirits is still relevant today. We, the mayors, measure every day the need for meaning and trust that is crisscrossing this country, a call that Republicans can no longer ignore. We are the ones who hear the noise of the country before it becomes a cry.
The wise… “We solemnly warn today’s leaders and those who wish to replace them tomorrow,” the AMF message continued, “not to jump to too hasty conclusions: our rejection of the trial should not be seen as an invitation to change nothing. On the contrary, mayors are the first witnesses to the cracks in our republican model and often they are the only ones who close those gaps. Will the city collapse? We no longer want to simply play the role of emergency managers and abused subcontractors in a weak state. We no longer accept that the State is dragging its feet we’re in the sinking »
Moving on from his prepared speech, Sébastien Lecornu wanted to respond to the mayors – and their colleagues – point by point, directly, starting with a question: “Why is it that when we are in crisis public power functions and when the sea is calm difficulties and rigidities emerge?» The Prime Minister acknowledged the “failure”, sharing the diagnosis made long ago by David Lisnard regarding normative inflation: “We are losing freedom, because we can no longer keep things simple. But why are there so many standards? » And Sébastien Lecornu points out “very strong social and societal demand for protection”. He summarized the latter in one formula: “one crisis, one law”. Another cause of this crisis, according to him: judicialization, which causes public actors to act “defensively”, so that legal regulations become more precise and lengthy. “Judicialization will hinder the decentralization movement,” said Sébastien Lecornu.
“Power must circulate in this country”
Le Normand, a former regional government minister, has of course heard the accusations made by David Lisnard, concerned about recentralization in France. But he wanted to add a warning: “There is still a form of Parisian Jacobinism which tends to transform into regional Jacobinism” since the creation of the super-region (by François Hollande).
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However, Sébastien Lecornu does not intend to push for a “big night of decentralization”, but rather a “clarification of public policy: too many cooks in the kitchen, we no longer know who is doing what”. He promised to put Eure-et-Loir deputy Harold Huwart’s proposal on the agenda of the Council of Ministers before Christmas. “Power must circulate within the country,” Sébastien Lecornu said in a serious tone to the mayors.
READ ALSO Facing a crisis, the mayor’s prescriptionTo remove obstacles to municipal action, the current head of government has also committed to signing a “major decree” to “cut standards and decisions”. “I hope the start of the city’s next term can be simple,” said Sébastien Lecornu, also committing to ensuring “financial clarity.” “We are at the end of a cycle: no one can know how things work out,” he said. By incorporating his promises into a more global mission, which we can conclude, concerns the National Assembly and society. With the same goal: “to get out of the political mess” to “succeed in saving representative democracy”.
