«Jamais depuis 1982 la décentralisation n’a été autant en danger !»

7 Partages

TRIBUNE - Hervé Morin, Dominique Bussereau and François Baroin, representatives of the elected representatives of the regions, departments and cities of France, protest against the territorial policy of Emmanuel Macron, whom they consider technocratic and centralizing. They wish to finally be listened to by the government.

For several years now, the French and their elected representatives have noticed that the territorial and social divide has never been greater in our country, while municipalities, departments and regions occupy a fundamental place in the relationship between the State and the citizens.

In 2017, with the election of Emmanuel Macron, the vast majority of local politicians, of all political persuasions, were looking forward to the advent of a new relationship between the state and communities. Today, this hope is disappointed and we no longer trust.

We are seeing more and more clearly a technocratic and centralizing power.

The executive announced a Girondin pact, the only one indeed able to reconcile decisions with reality by bringing the two together. We are seeing more and more clearly a technocratic and centralizing power.

Never since 1982 has decentralization been so much in danger!

Our centralized system pumps the energy of the French even though it should be the one that gives them. Our system of public governance is definitely no longer adapted to the new, horizontal, partnership, multipolar world, that of networks and projects, that of agile governances.

The problem is not a quarrel of powers but the respect of institutional balances. It is an issue of democracy. The most fragile territories, neighborhoods, rural areas, town centers, are sacrificed by a policy disconnected from the realities of the country. Yet, all nations that succeed and modernize have a respectful relationship with all of their local communities.

The state increases its workforce by 25,000 while communities reduce by 7,000

The government has decided to put the communities under financial supervision but does not impose the same efforts. Local authorities will contribute in the next five years, 2018-2022, to a deleveraging of France to 50 billion, while the state will increase the debt of the country of 330 billion euros. The state is increasing its workforce by 25,000 while communities are reducing it by 7,000.

The ability of communities to invest tomorrow in the service of the population risks being severely hampered by the virtual elimination of the housing tax and the financial control of large communities.

Indeed, the financial contractualization proposed by the state to the authorities in order to control the level of their expenses suffers from the habitual crossings of the State: absence of real dialogue, stigmatization of costly prejudices communities, paradoxical injunctions between the economies asked to the collectivities and the local public expenditure which he prescribes to them, disregarding the role and place of the communes.

At the same time, the State imposes a transfer of charges on the departments of nearly 11 billion euros on individual solidarity allowances (RSA, active solidarity income, APA, allowance for the elderly, CPH, disability compensation benefit). ) and the unaccompanied minors, who nevertheless come under national solidarity, and announce the abrupt withdrawal of a beginning of solution found with the departments.

For the first time in thirty years, the state is recentralizing a jurisdiction, learning, and even as the number of apprenticeship contracts reached a record level over the last eleven months.

The State does not respect its commitments in state-region plan contracts or in the co-financing of investments with departments, inter-municipal authorities and municipalities.

Finally, the disqualification of municipalities in the public policies essential to the development and development of territories is systematic. They are deprived of fundamental skills in the exercise of public policies essential to social cohesion.

A different policy, respectful of the French and their local elected representatives is possible. It would go through an effort to restore public accounts equitably shared between the state and local communities.

We demand the respect of the essential principles of the decentralized Republic: the free administration of the territorial collectivities and their financial and fiscal autonomy.

It would imply the end of the unilateralism of the governmental discussions and the respect by the State of its own word. It would imply that local authorities can truly control their own resources in order to have the means to act for the general interest, closer to their inhabitants. We demand the respect of the essential principles of the decentralized Republic: the free administration of the territorial collectivities and their financial and fiscal autonomy.

Never has a government talked so much about dialogue, consultation and consultation. Never has a government been so deaf and far from our needs as to decisions.

We sincerely wanted this new form of dialogue. We took our share of it, wanting to contribute to its success. We regret that it is simply used by the government to make us see our disagreements and not to seek acceptable and shared solutions.

It is this artifice that we denounce today with difficulty but with gravity because it is the French who will suffer first.

* Hervé Morin is president of the regions of France. Dominique Bussereau is President of the Assembly of French Departments. François Baroin is president of the Association of Mayors of France.

The editorial advises you: