Approaching the municipal elections of 2026, the taboo breaks across the psychological well being of mayors | EUROtoday

The relaxed mine, but in addition marked by fatigue, Patrick Gaultier receives within the workplace of the mayor of Renazé (Mayenne), a wet afternoon in March. “For three weeks, I have been spending half the time here”realizes the elected official of 66 years. The one who was the councilor (varied left) of the small city seventeen years for handed over his scarf, on the finish of February, a month after saying his resignation. A choice motivated by the exhaustion state that steadily saved him: “I felt the pressure and wear and wear in me. This time, I took the lead. »» Because Patrick Gaultier has already experienced a burn-out in the exercise of his mandate in 2018.

The farmer accumulated at the time his activity with his functions as a councilor and president of the new community of communes, whose merger proves to be laborious. “I work so much that I feel extreme fatigue and strong stress. I become very irritable, I can see that I sink into it ”he says. The click on takes place because of a tense hand, one night when, as he lingers once more, one other mayor pushes him to return dwelling. “The next day at dawn, he comes to tell me that he looked at the symptoms of burnout, and that I am in the middle of it. In the process, I consult my doctor, then I announce my background to my team. It was a very difficult moment ”he recollects, moved. The younger retiree is represented in 2020, solely on the city corridor. But his features stay “Exhausting” And eventually lead it to renunciation.

While the number of resignations has continued to grow since 2020, two studies published in the fall have, for the first time, lifted the veil on the mental health of the mayors. A first, led by Sociologists Didier Demazière and Jérôme Pélisse, from the Center of Sociology of Organizations (Sciences PO Paris-CNRS) with the Association of Mayors of France and the Presidents of Intercommunality (AMF), revealed that 83 % of the councilors deem their mandate using their health and ” steadily “ Subjects to strong stress or sleep disorders.

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