The president of the association of mayors of France (AMF), LR David Lisnard, is alarmed that the “resignations of local elected officials are reaching an unprecedented level”, against a backdrop of “civic crisis”, “discouragement” or even of “attempts to intimidate” city councilors.
“We can already say that out of 1/5th of the AMF’s departmental associations, these resignations have concerned 238 mayors, 773 deputies and 2,976 elected municipal officials, i.e. nearly 4,000 elected officials who have resigned since the start of their mandate in 2020”, alert the mayor of Cannes in an interview with Le Figaro on Monday.
“We can therefore say that throughout France, the threshold of 1,000 resigning mayors has been exceeded. This trend is even faster than during the previous mandate, during which departures had already doubled,” laments David Lisnard. “These figures confirm an alert rating, because the resignations of local elected officials are reaching an unprecedented level,” he warns.
Incivism and intimidation
“This phenomenon is indicative of the civic crisis that is expressed in all areas, in a country marked by increases in abstention, attacks, etc. Perhaps we are also facing a crisis of commitment, which we already perceive in the associative world with the decline in volunteering, “said the president of the AMF.
According to the mayor LR of Cannes, “the municipal exercise is a bureaucratic headache”, which “wearies and gets worse” and “the multiplication of constraints remains the first cause of discouragement”.
“Incivility weighs” also, he underlines, describing “attacks on social networks” which “target reputations and affect the honor of elected officials”, “disparagements” even “attempts at intimidation” . “We can fear a discouragement of vocations, as is increasingly the case. (…). Passion is still very present in many town halls, but beware! “, insists the president of the AMF.