New oral for presidential candidates. After the program “La France face à la guerre” which brought together the eight main candidates at the Elysée Palace on Monday evening on TF1, they were all invited this time on Tuesday March 15 before the three main associations of local elected officials on the subject of decentralization. The Association of Mayors of France (AMF), the Association of French Departments (ADF) and the Regions of France, all three grouped under the banner of “United Territories”, received Fabien Roussel (French Communist Party), Jean Lassalle (Resist!), Marine Le Pen (National Rally), Philippe Poutou (New Anti-Capitalist Party), Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), Nathalie Arthaud (Workers’ Struggle), Valérie Pécresse (Les Républicains), Yannick Jadot (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts), Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Debout la France) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France insoumise).
Emmanuel Macron (La République en Marche) and Eric Zemmour (Reconquest!) did not respond favorably to the invitation. “The candidates who decided to come were right, which means that the others were wrong”, said David Lisnard (Les Républicains, LR), mayor of Cannes and president of the AMF. Mr. Zemmour has “cancelled his participation on Monday evening”according to the organizers.
Philippe Poutou understands that “it’s a bit off in Corsica”
Of the ten candidates interviewed, most were in favor of greater decentralization compared to the past five years. Philippe Poutou (NPA) thus proposed “structures of direct democracy” at local level. “It wouldn’t be complicated all the same to trust the population and the inhabitants”he argued, before adding: “If it’s not possible on a local scale, how could it be envisaged on a larger scale? »
Finally, the candidate wanted to talk about the situation in Corsica and make it known “his solidarity”deeming it legitimate ” the revolt “ protesters, as clashes with police took place on Sunday and tension remains on the island. “We are for the right of peoples to self-determination (…)the recognition of a status, a language, a culture (…). It blows up in Corsica, because there has been a denial of democracy and fortunately it blows up at times because that’s how we get things done ”said the candidate.
“I am, for my part, deeply attached to the localist model”explained M.me The pen. If elected, she has promised not to implement “an umpteenth law for the complete reform of local authorities”but a “territorial rebalancing policy” taking the form of a “demetropolisation”by “tax incentives” and the “construction of infrastructure, whether digital or transport”. The candidate also mentioned the possibility of a rapprochement between regions and departments in a territorial council.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan in favor of the abolition of intermunicipalities
Valérie Pécresse (LR) was able to explain one of the important measures of her program: the reduction of 150,000 civil servants in “administering administration”. “I want to debureaucratize”she began, repeating her ambition to “halve the time of all administrative procedures”. Second axis of his project: a program of “decentralization” in particular to allow local authorities “to adapt national regulations” under contracts signed with the prefectures. “I want mayors to regain the power to design their city”then said Mr.me Pécresse, who would demand the abolition of the urban solidarity and renewal law (SRU) – which notably imposes a minimum share of social housing in 2,111 municipalities in France – and its replacement by “genuine contracts of social diversity”a device already mentioned during discussions on the “3DS” law, adopted in February by Parliament.
Contrary to the speeches before him, the candidate of the Debout la France party, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, began his intervention with a plea against intermunicipalities, the model of which is now made compulsory by law. He considers that the municipalities “are dying of suffocation by intermunicipalities, which are too big, too bulimic, too undemocratic”. Mr. Dupont-Aignan is in favor of abolishing the regional health agencies (ARS) in favor of a return to departmental branches of the Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the departmental council, which “knew the territory”, according to him.
The absence of Emmanuel Macron criticized
The president of the ADF, François Sauvadet (Union of Independent Democrats, UDI), directly challenged the absent Emmanuel Macron at the start of the day: “The President of the Republic is in Maine-et-Loire this afternoon. I would have liked him to be with us to answer our questions like the others”he said, assuring that France has “more than ever need for a democratic debate”.
The most virulent charge against the absence of Mr. Macron was made by the socialist vice-president of the AMF, André Laignel, who described the five-year term as “calamitous” for communities. “It is still curious that the one who turned to the mayors [lors de la crise des « gilets jaunes »] did not deign today to come before the mayors both to report on this five-year term and the way in which he considered local democracy or not”he lamented. “No definitely, it’s not very republican behavior”added the mayor of Issoudun (Indre).