“Worrying. » When we tell Emmanuel Grégoire, Anne Hidalgo’s first deputy, the word chosen by a councilor from Paris to describe the financial situation of the capital at the start of the discussions on the 2023 budget, which will be voted on in December, he understands who it is. With a smirk, he spontaneously evokes Rachida Dati, the mayor Les Républicains (LR) of 7e borough, which raises the specter of financial supervision of the city: “She spreads false information to bring discredit. The financial situation is good. »
But when he is told that this ” worrying is, in fact, issued by Fatoumata Koné, president of the ecologist group at the Council of Paris, it darkens a little, while being less vehement, the Greens being a decisive component of its majority: “Finances are solid, but we will have to build a demanding budget, because the debt has increased in a context of uncertainty, linked to the Covid crisis, the future effects of the energy crisis and the drop in endowments for the State to communities. Waste hunting becomes an imperative. We need to make 250 million euros in savings to be comfortable [sur un budget d’environ 9 milliards en 2022]. »
“No global vision”
250 million euros is a figure that questions Mme Kone: “How did they come up with that number? And if we save this money, we won’t have to worry anymore? » The ecologist claims to have “requested several times to know the investment plan of the mandate to know the course”. Without success. Regretting the absence of ” global vision “she laments a lack “exchange of information”. “The choices are made by the mayor’s office. And then we have to adapt. » To try to anticipate traditionally tense discussions at the time of the examination of the main budgetary orientations, Anne Hidalgo had invited her plural majority (socialist, ecologist and communist) to a seminar, Monday, September 5, at the school of horticulture in Paris, in the Bois de Vincennes.
A group discussion that took place “in a respectful, responsible atmosphere, because everyone is aware of the issues. The duty of sobriety must be shared by all., according to Mr. Grégoire. A meeting from which environmentalists came out “frustrated”, according to Mme Kone: “The speech was quite general. On August 15, we were supposed to receive encrypted elements, but we received them fifteen days late”she says, criticizing “a method that no longer holds”. After thinking about “boycott the seminar”environmentalists finally participated in it not to be “deprived of certain information”. “I love my green colleagues, but I find them excessivereplies Mr. Grégoire, claiming to have “implemented a unique process”. “We provided them with exhaustive, confidential documents, which we had never done before. »
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