2023-12-12 07:00:23
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, during the 105th session of the Congress of Mayors organized by the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), in Paris, November 21, 2023. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
For the last Paris Council of the year, during which the budget (11.3 billion euros for 2024) is voted on, Tuesday December 12, it is customary for the debates to be heated.
She also wants the opposition to seize the opportunity to denounce the supposed negligence of municipal management in a more or less flowery pattern: “Paris has become very fertile, thus quips Pierre-Yves Bournazel, president of the Horizons group, the movement of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. We are sowing debt. And the mismanagement is paid for by the taxpayer,” thus referring to the substantial increase (+ 52%) in property tax. “The margins generated by this increase are already burned, adds Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée, senator and president (Les Républicains, LR) of the finance committee at the Council of Paris. We can clearly see that we are in front of the wall. The executive uses bluster, approximation and a lack of professionalism. The only thing that has declined in the capital is the population. »
While the debt burden is exploding (the debt stands at 8.8 billion euros at the end of 2024, according to the Paris town hall), Maud Gatel, president of the MoDem group on the Council, drives home the point of catastrophism: “How to guarantee [la dette] ? By imagining that we can sell the Eiffel Tower? Not to mention the failure to anticipate the reduction in notary fees due to a real estate market which is decreasing by 22%. How to fill a hole of 300 million euros? »
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The Parisian executive retorts very calmly: “There is no concern about borrowing authorization, and the budget allows us to finance our priorities: the social aspect and the climate plan,” says Paul Simondon, finance assistant to Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who denounces the “disengagement of the government from local communities” to explain a complex financial equation.
Despite everything, a month after the media-political excitement generated by Anne Hidalgo’s overseas trip, the debates could have seemed a bit dull if something new had not spiced them up. Because it is within the majority itself that tensions arise. Environmentalists are less and less comfortable with the financial directions of the Parisian executive. “We are going to adopt an ambitious climate plan, intervenes Fatoumata Koné, president of the environmental group. However, the crux of the matter is the budget. And this plan is not yet funded. »
“The account is not there”
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