LEGISLATIVE: “Everything is decided at the top and vertically”, protests Gérard Larcher

“We had a majority of deputies who knew nothing of the reality of local authorities”, analyzed the President of the Senate, calling for a dialogue deputy-senator during a meeting in support of the candidacy of François-Xavier Dugourd for the legislative, this Wednesday, June 8 in Asnières-lès-Dijon.

The palm of the animation of the campaign goes unquestionably to the Republicans who, to support the candidates LR-UDI, received in Côte-d’Or several national figures like David Lisnard, Laurent Wauquiez or Gérard Larcher.

This Wednesday, June 8, 2022, the President of the Senate, the third figure of the State, stopped off in Asnières-lès-Dijon, for a time of exchanges with local elected officials on the theme of the relations of local authorities with the central power. .

The meeting was held on the first constituency, coveted by François-Xavier Dugourd (LR-UDI) and his alternate Catherine Renosi. Another candidate was present, Bruno David (various right) who embarked on the second constituency as a dissident of the LR-UDI alliance.

Around them, around forty people, mayors and departmental councillors, 14 municipalities are thus represented out of the 21 in the constituency.

We found Patricia Gourmand (LR), mayor of Asnières-lès-Dijon, Guillaume Ruet (LR), mayor of Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur and departmental councilor, Fabian Ruinet (LR), mayor of Talant, Patrick Chapuis (LR), mayor of Fontaine-lès-Dijon, Gérard Herrmann (without label), mayor of Corcelles-les-Monts, Jean-Michel Staiger (without label), mayor of Savigny-le-Sec, Céline Vialet (LCOP), departmental councilor, Viviane Vuillermot (LR), departmental adviser, Alain Lamy (LCOP), departmental adviser. Without forgetting Senator Alain Houpert (LR) who also supports the invested candidates (read the press release).

Two representatives of the hunters also followed the discussions: Pascal Secula, president of the regional federation of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, and Dominique Rigaud, vice-president of the departmental federation of Côte-d’Or. Gérard Larcher having planned that same day a meeting on hunting following the stage in Asnières-lès-Dijon.

“Local authorities have demonstrated their effectiveness”

After the Republican welcome speech by Patricia Gourmand, François-Xavier Dugourd takes the floor: “local authorities are fundamental to our democracy and to the whole balance of French society”. France has 550,000 local elected officials, 80% of whom are volunteers.

The deputy vice-president of the Department of Côte-d’Or, sitting in the majority of François Sauvadet (LCOP), considers that “local authorities have demonstrated their efficiency, (…) the current crisis has still demonstrated. We have seen that if the mayors, the Departments, the Regions had not been on the front line on the Covid crisis, we would not have been able to remedy all the shortcomings of the State on this issue”.

François-Xavier Dugourd calls for “more decentralization”

The tone is set: to defend the place of local authorities in the functioning of the Republic, not in opposition to the central State, but in an articulation that leaves them more flexibility to support the economic and social situation, respond to the problems of climate and energy or bridging the digital divide.

“Local authorities are struggling in a world where there are still a lot of constraints”, indicates François-Xavier Dugourd who lists the drop in state grants, the reduction in fiscal autonomy, the “aberrant standards”, the requirements of the citizen, the role of social networks, the “administrative complexity” and the verbal or physical abuses with which elected officials are confronted. The elected official who calls for “more decentralization” wonders: “is the government finally going to trust local elected officials?”

“We need a dialogue deputies-senators”

“A mayor, a local elected official, has a privileged knowledge of everything that happens on his territory”, explained François-Xavier Dugourd on the sidelines of the meeting while the exchanges are more akin to a campaign for the senatorials than for the legislative. “I am convinced that a deputy, it must really be part of his mission to be in close contact with [les élus locaux] to be in line with the expectations of the citizens, to bring the projects to the local level and also to the national level, to feed its work of elaboration of the law (…) but also to feed its work of control and evaluation of the laws. (…) Mayors need facilitators.”

“We need a dialogue between deputies and senators”, added Gérard Larcher, “what really matters to us is that we had a majority of deputies who were unaware of the reality of local authorities, it is a lack that we have had during this five-year period with, in addition, a president [de la République] who did not have that sensitivity.

A “national council for refoundation” to “bypass” Parliament

The announcement, still vague, of the President of the Republic to create a “National Council for Refoundation”, composing the same acronym as the National Council of the Resistance during the Second World War, made Gérard Larcher wince, who wonders if it would not be a question of “bypassing” parliament, “the first place of debate”.

“The worst thing is that the President of the Republic slams it in the face of his own deputies. He tells them ‘you are going to be elected but you are not going to count to rebuild the country’, it is terrible! On the contrary, I want the deputies to play a role. I cannot imagine the opposition simply being represented by two extremes, La France Insoumise and the National Rally,” indicated the President of the Senate.

“I fear that this is a way of not addressing those whose mission it is and who, in addition, have received democratic legitimacy,” added Gérard Larcher. “Our responsibility is to stitch the country back together.”

“The need for local elected officials”

Speaking to the audience, Gérard Larcher bounces back to call on the President of the Republic to establish “a relationship with the Regions, Departments, municipalities and [intercommunalités]”. “The role of the Senate is to practice the regular injection of the need for local elected officials”, he sums up before underlining “the importance of having a deputy sensitive to this”.

The deputies voting on the finance law, Gérard Larcher alerts the finance assistants in the municipalities to the forthcoming revaluation of the public service index point as well as to the additional costs to come for the supply of school catering or even on the need to provide for increases in the budgets of the municipal social action centers to “meet the significant needs” of the populations.

In addition, on the Senate’s website, a platform collects estimates of additional expenses related to the increase in the cost of energy.

Gérard Larcher anticipates a drop in the DGF of 15 billion euros

The President of the Senate then recalls that the overall envelope for the overall allocation for the operation of communities decreased by 12 billion euros during the five-year term of François Hollande (2012-2017). If the envelope has remained stable since, Gérard Larcher nevertheless anticipates a drop of 15 billion euros to contribute to the return to balance of the country’s public finances.

“It will be one of the challenges of the dialogue that we are going to have with the President of the Republic. (…) Nothing has changed in the verticality, everything is decided above and in verticality”, he protests.

“We are one of the most taxed countries in the OECD and one of the countries with the highest public debt,” he continues, calling on local elected officials to “do differently from the state”.

ZAN Alert

Another subject that is causing a stir among local elected officials is the principle of zero net artificialisation of soils (ZAN) to fight against their waterproofing. Some elected officials even challenged Minister Emmanuelle Wargon when she came to Dijon because they fear a reduction in the possibilities of economic development (construction of housing or construction of business parks). The AMF has brought an action against the State on the subject.

The President of the Senate recalls that next October is the deadline for transmitting the wishes of the municipalities in connection with the territorial coherence schemes (SCOT).

Here too, the Senate has set up a platform to collect local issues before July 27 concerning the objective of zero net artificialisation of the soil.

The President of the Senate continues with the themes of health – “we are preparing for a catastrophic summer” –, of medico-social – “we can no longer continue the double supervision [des EHPAD] State Department” –, security – “I have not forgotten the Grésilles” – the environment, the war in Ukraine – “we must dialogue with the Russian Federation” – or even agriculture – “there we will have to feed Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan…”.

“Also find contact with the French”

“In the Senate, we are by nature a counter-power, (…) we never say yes out of partisan discipline, never no out of partisan dogmatism”, slips Gérard Larcher.

From this, he calls for having “a parliamentary group in the National Assembly on an independent, clear and positive line which, as in the Senate, when we consider that it is in the interest of the country, we amend it and the vote”. Without giving a forecast on the number of seats obtained on the evening of June 19th.

Beyond the legislative elections, Gérard Larcher calls on the Republicans and the UDI to “reflect” around “the sovereign pillar” and “the social pillar”. “We will also have to find contact with the French as well.”

Jean-Christophe Tardivon

Candidates in the first constituency (by electoral panel)

1- Didier Martin (Ensemble)
2- Antoine Peillon (La France Insoumise, NUPES)
3- Grace Jourdier (National Gathering)
4- Ambrine Mohamed (Reconquest)
5- Sladana Zivkovic (various left)
6- Amar Titraoui (various centre)
7- Dominique Gros (Democratic Independent Workers Party)
8- Julien Thévenin (Workers struggle)
9- François-Xavier Dugourd (LR-UDI)
10- Franck Ayache (various center)
11- Manon Bourguignon (Patriots)

“A single ballot makes it possible not to write a blank check to Emmanuel Macron without voting for the extremes, it is that of the Republicans”, declares Laurent Wauquiez

François-Xavier Dugourd wants to “work with the actors in the field in the design of the law”

The candidates make their bets for the legislative elections in Côte-d’Or