An overestimated phenomenon? The number of mayors who have resigned since the start of their mandate in the summer of 2020 is on average “comparable” to that of the previous mandate, indicated this Wednesday the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, responding to the President of the Association. mayors of France (AMF). David Lisnard (LR), was alarmed on Monday, in an interview with Le Figaro, that the resignations of local elected officials are reaching “an unprecedented level” with the exceeding of the threshold of “1,000 resigning mayors”, a trend ” even faster than during the previous mandate”, according to him.
Questioned in the Senate during questions to the government, Christophe Béchu declared that 1,293 mayors had resigned from their functions since the beginning of their mandate. “We must always be wary of the figures because over the six years, between 2014 and 2020, 2,925 mayors had resigned and we are therefore on comparable averages of around 40 per month”, he added. he tempered, challenging the idea of an acceleration of these resignations. On the other hand, he gave no figures on the resignations of deputies and municipal councillors, a sharp increase according to the AMF.
The increase in violence, a factor in resignations
While the President of the AMF explained these figures by the “civic crisis”, the increase in “aggression” and “the multiplication of constraints”, the Minister for Ecological Transition rather referred to the health crisis, which according to him weighed heavily in the choice of newly elected members to throw in the towel. “We are only halfway through the mandate and we had a lot of resignations at the very beginning of the mandate”, some of which “certainly linked to the Covid, to a context of entry into the function which was complicated. I see it in my department with municipal teams where the mayonnaise did not take because we did not have the time and the opportunity to work together, ”he said.
Christophe Béchu admitted, however, that “the economic situation” did not explain “not everything”, and that the rise in violence also played a role in the fed up of elected officials. The minister felt that it was necessary to “go further” to help the mayors, citing in particular the establishment of a Senate information mission on the future of the municipality or the ongoing consultations on the status of the municipality. ‘elected.