Violence, too many requirements… When mayors quit | EUROtoday
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DStories of native elected officers condemned due to poorly thought out legal guidelines will not be missing in France. This is evidenced by the conviction in 2021 of Dominique Cap, mayor of Plougastel-Daoulas in Finistère. His fault? Not having left the room on the time of the vote on a subsidy for the advantage of a sports activities affiliation that he co-chaired. It all began with a grievance from Anticor, an anti-corruption affiliation, for non-compliance with deportation, a mechanism offered for by the 2013 regulation on transparency in public life, requiring an elected official not to participate in a municipal deliberation which issues an affiliation that he directs.
Result: 9,000 euros wonderful together with 1,500 euros suspended. “I didn't expect to be sentenced for organizing a bike race for children. Alas, we have entered the grinding machine,” saddens the elected official, quoted by Luc Chatel in his guide Who desires the pores and skin of the mayors of France? (Ed. Le Cherche Midi).
A state normativity that poses an issue
In an in depth evaluation of native political life within the metropolis, the journalist highlights “the absurdity of a system”, that of a “hostile” State which multiplies rules and legal guidelines, confronted with mayors left to disadvantaged. More requirements, tighter deadlines, an elevated danger of conviction… The mandate of mayor not appears to be a dream, as elected officers are overwhelmed by requirements.
Because in France, mayors are topic to too many legal guidelines. In 2022 alone, a minimum of 1,786 regulatory decrees and eight,077 regulatory rulings had been revealed, in keeping with the “norm statistics”, an indicator of normative growth revealed on the Légifrance web site by the federal government, on which s helps the journalist.
Impressive figures to which is added the multiplication of areas by which these requirements intervene: incapacity, setting, economic system, participatory democracy… No sector of French municipal life escapes state normativity. According to Luc Chatel, the multiplication of requirements would outcome from an “almost mystical belief in the miraculous standard which would protect, even cure”.
For elected officers, at first parliamentarians, decrees and rules would look like one of the best ways to offer the phantasm of constructing choices within the normal curiosity, pushing residents to consider that the usual may very well be a “medicine”. A treatment which, nonetheless, appears removed from fixing the numerous issues of French municipalities.
Application usually impractical
If the one downside with requirements was their quantity… But to the amount comes complexity. The actual problem of the French normative system lies within the software of rules, the primary victims of that are small municipalities, which should implement quite a few and sophisticated requirements, with usually very restricted assets. By wanting on the each day lives of those native elected officers, Luc Chatel highlights the disconnect between the State and its municipalities, whose particularities will not be taken under consideration.
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The Disability regulation of 2005 is a revealing instance. While it created consensus on the high of the State as to its deserves in enhancing the scenario of individuals with lowered mobility, its sensible software proved to be extremely restrictive. “The obligations imposed on mayors, particularly in terms of roads and accessibility of establishments open to the public, have proven to be completely unrealizable for many,” writes Luc Chatel.
“For example, the obligation to have sidewalks with a width of 1.40 meters will not be experienced in the same way by a small rural municipality as by a metropolis,” provides the writer, who explains that the place giant municipalities depend on vital funding, smaller ones compensate for his or her lack of assets via elevated mutual support between residents.
Mayors, victims of citizen violence
August 5, 2019, Jean-Mathieu Michel, 76, mayor of Signes, was fatally crushed by a resident of his city whereas attempting to forestall him from dumping waste on municipal land. December 9, 2021, Bernard Aurisset, mayor of Ledeuix at 63, finds himself along with his head in opposition to the bottom, face bleeding, hit by a resident of the municipality beneath the frightened gaze of his grandchildren.
Luc Chatel's guide is filled with mayors who’re attacked by the inhabitants of their city. The multiplication and complexity of requirements by the State is just not the one problem that mayors should face. This would make their mandate too simple. For a number of years, native elected officers have been uncovered to growing violence. According to a Cevipof examine cited by the journalist, “nearly 70% of them say they have been victims of incivility in 2023, or 16% more than in 2020,” he mentions.
“The only thing that awaits the mayor is a bullet in the head,” proclaimed a resident of Callac, quoted by the writer, to the mayor of the city, Jean-Yves Rolland, in opposition to the development of a reception middle for refugees. Physical assaults and demise threats are the each day lives of mayors in France at this time.
A disappearance of municipalities?
“For a very long time, the mandate of mayor may very well be summed up in two phrases: ardour and vocation. Today, there are two different phrases that designate him: assaults and resignations. » Luc Chatel opened his story with a really pessimistic, however sadly practical commentary.
Since 2020, 450 mayors have resigned annually. Faced with the rise in citizen violence and a State which enacts requirements which can be more and more disconnected from native political life, for municipal elected officers, ardour offers method to obligation. That of holding on, a little bit longer, to make sure the way forward for the cities and villages of France. But it gained't final without end.
Who desires the pores and skin of the mayors of France? by Luc Chatel, revealed by Le Cherche Midi, €18.90.
https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/violences-trop-plein-de-normes-quand-les-maires-baissent-les-bras-25-04-2024-2558662_23.php